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NER-ST 

of 

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FRANCIS    BURTON 
HARRISON 


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THE  CORNER-STONE  OF 
PHILIPPINE  INDEPENDENCE 

A  NARRATIVE  OF  SEVEN  YEARS 


FRANCIS   BURTON  HARRISON 
Governor-General  of  Philippine  Islands,  October,  1913 — February,  1921 


THE  CORNER-STONE  OF 
PHILIPPINE  INDEPENDENCE 

A  NARRATIVE  OF  SEVEN  YEARS 


BY 
FRANCIS  BURTON  HARRISON 

GOVERNOR-GENERAL    OF    PHILIPPINE    ISLANDS, 
OCTOBER,   1913 — FEBRUARY,   1921 


ILLUSTRATED    WITH 
PHOTOGRAPHS 


NEW  YORK 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1922 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
The  Centuey  Co. 


Printed  in  U.  S.  A. 


To 

THE    HON.    MANUEL    L.    QUEZON 

Filipino  Patriot 

and 

Loyal  Feiend 


PREFACE 

IS  the  United  States  Government  imperialistic? 
The  American  people,  npon  the  whole,  are  not,  but 
under  our  system  of  government  a  state  of  war  may 
be  forced  upon  the  people  and,  as  a  result,  foreign 
territories  annexed  without  any  clear  understanding 
of  the  issue  on  the  part  of  the  voters.  It  is  not  the 
peculiar  privilege  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples  to  pro- 
fess one  principle  and  practise  another,  but,  unfortu- 
nately, the  other  nations  of  the  world  already  look 
with  distrust  upon  our  designs.  Certainly  our  neigh- 
bors to  the  south  and  across  the  Pacific  have  their 
doubts  as  to  our  intentions.  To  them  the  acquisition 
of  the  Philippines  and  Porto  Rico,  Hawaii,  Samoa, 
Guam,  and  the  Virgin  Islands ;  our  virtual  protectorate 
over  Cuba  and  Panama;  our  military  expedition  to 
Siberia,  and  the  invasion  by  our  marines  of  Hayti  and 
the  Central  American  States  in  recent  years  seem  to 
justify  suspicion.  The  average  American  citizen  is 
usually  not  consulted  in  these  matters;  if  he  is,  it  is 
always  our  "honor"  which  is  involved,  or  we  are  said 
to  be  acting  in  an  unselfish  desire  to  benefit  the  people 
whose  country  we  invade.  These,  also,  are  the  argu- 
ments used  by  the  statesmen  of  the  frankly  imperial- 
istic governments  of  Europe  for  their  annexations  of 
territory.  If  the  United  States  is  really  embarked  upon 
a  course  of  empire,  our  people  are  entitled  to  know 
the  truth  and  to  express  an  opinion  upon  the  policy. 
The  cost  in  armaments  is  already  prodigious ;  the  ill- 
will  toward  us  of  the  other  nations  of  the  world  is 
growing.  The  price  we  may  have  to  pay  in  foreign 
wars  in  the  future  may  prove  our  ruin.    Let  us  at  least 

yii 


viii  PREFACE 

consider,  before  it  is  too  late,  where  the  path  will  lead 
upon  which  our  Government  has  taken  the  first  steps. 

The  Philippines  may  well  be  the  test  case  in  this 
problem.  We  have  thus  far  acted  with  unparalleled 
generosity  toward  the  Filipinos,  in  giving  them  self- 
government  and  promising  them  their  independence. 
They  believe  in  us  and  in  our  promises ;  they  were  ab- 
solutely loyal  to  us  during  the  war;  they  have  made 
astonishing  progress  in  self-government;  they  desire 
independence.  The  time  is  close  at  hand  when  we 
must  redeem  our  promise,  or  else  forfeit  their  con- 
fidence and  good-will,  and  break  our  given  word. 

The  following  pages  have  been  written  in  the  hope 
of  conveying  to  those  at  home  who  may  read  them  an 
idea  of  what  the  Filipinos  have  done  with  the  self- 
government  we  granted  them  in  1916.  The  purpose  of 
the  book  is  to  portray  their  ideals  and  ambitions,  their 
trials  and  problems,  their  accomplishments  and  de- 
velopment, rather  than  to  describe  the  achievements 
of  our  fellow-countrymen  in  the  islands.  The  writer 
is  convinced  that  the  Filipinos  are  now  ready  for  inde- 
pendence, that  they  have  already  set  up  the  stable 
government  required  of  them  by  the  Jones  Act  as  a 
prerequisite,  and  that,  in  the  words  of  President  Wil- 
son in  1920,  in  his  last  annual  message  to  Congress, 
"It  is  now  our  liberty  and  our  duty  to  keep  our 
promise  to  the  people  of  those  islands  by  granting  them 
the  independence  which  they  so  honorably  covet. ' ' 

FRANCIS   BURTON    HARRISON. 

Caithnes shire,  Scotland, 
September  10, 1921 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAflB 

I    Introduction 3 

II    The  Filipino  Eace 10 

III  Earlier  Years  op  American  Occupation 31 

IV  The  New   Era 50 

V    Filipinos  in  Control  of  the  Legislature 60 

VI    Filipinization 75 

VII    The  Moros 92\ 

VIII    Civil  Government  in  Moroland 105 

IX    The  Hill  Tribes  op  Luzon 123 

X  The  American  Garrison  in  the  Philippines  ....  143 

XI    Incidents  op  War  Times 169 

XII    Filipino  Loyalty  During  the  War -    .     .  182 

XIII  The  Jones  Act 192 

XIV  The  New  Filipino  Government 202 

XV    The  Filipino  Lawmakers 216 

XVI    In  the  Provinces 231 

XVII  New  Ventures  in  Commerce  and  Finance   ....  250 

XVIII  The  Filipino  Attitude  toward  Foreigners   ....  269 

XIX    The  Independence  op  the  Philippines 285 

XX    The   Japanese   "Menace" 306 

XXI  Effect  of  the  American  Policy  in  the  Philippines 

upon  the  European  Masters  of  Asia   ....  320 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Francis  Burton  Harrison Frontispiece 

FACING  FAOB 

Part  of  the  famous  Zig-Zag,  Benguet  Road 32 

Pagsanhan  Falls,  Laguna  Province 33 

Naguilian  Road  to   Baguio 48 

Pasig  River  Front,  Manila 49 

A  bird's-eye  view  of  the  Luneta,  Manila 96 

The  Sultan  of  Jolo  and  other  prominent  Moros 97 

Government  pier,  Jolo 112 

Moro  "Datos"  or  District  Officials 113 

An  old  masonry  bridge 128 

Typical  modern  concrete  bridge 129 

Gilbert  Bridge,  Laoag,  Ilocos  Norte 160 

After  a  tropical  rain 161 

A  typical  busy  market-place 176 

Primary  school  pupils  of  the  public  schools  of  the  Philippine  Islands  177 

Hon.  Manuel  L.  Quezon 208 

Hon.  Sergio   Osmena 208 

Old  Council  of  State  of  Philippine  Islands,  July,  1920  ....  209 

New  Council  of  State  of  Philippine  Islands,  July,  1920  ....  209 

Cocoanut  rafts,  Pagsanhan  River,  Laguna 224 

Gathering  nipa  sap 225 

Marienda  at  home  of  Mauro  Prieto  in  Mariquina 272 

Transplanting  rice 273 

William  Jennings  Bryan  and  Francis  Burton  Harrison  ....  288 

Columbian  Association,  Manila,  February,  1921 289 


THE  CORNER-STONE  OF 
PHILIPPINE  INDEPENDENCE 

A  NARRATIVE  OF  SEVEN  YEARS 


THE  CORNERSTONE  OF 

PHILIPPINE   INDEPENDENCE 

A  NARRATIVE  OF  SEVEN  YEARS 

CHAPTER  I 

Introduction 

WHY  shouldn't  you  be  governor-general,  your- 
self?" asked  Manuel  L.  Quezon,  delegate  to 
Congress  from  the  Philippines.  This  was  on  August 
18,  1913,  at  the  end  of  a  long  conversation  in  his  office 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  Washington.  I 
had  been  trying  to  persuade  Mr.  Quezon  to  support 
the  candidacy  of  a  friend  whom  I  thought  eminently 
qualified  for  the  position.  It  appeared,  however,  that 
the  President  did  not  look  with  favor  upon  his  can- 
didacy. The  idea  of  my  own  appointment  struck  me 
with  amazement,  as  I  was  then  engaged  in  an  entirely 
different  kind  of  work,  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
during  the  revision  of  the  tariff. 

Mr.  Quezon  at  once  enlisted  the  support  of  Mr.  Wil- 
liam A.  Jones,  the  veteran  Representative  from  Vir- 
ginia and  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Insular 
Affairs,  who  in  turn  interested  Mr.  Bryan,  Secretary 
of  State,  and  four  days  later  President  Wilson  sent  my 
name  to  the  Senate,  which  body,  out  of  courtesy  to  a 
member  of  Congress,  suspended  the  rules  and  at  once 
confirmed  the  nomination.     So  in  less  than  a  week 

3 


4         MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

after  the  first  suggestion  was  made  I  found  myself 
destined  to  immediate  departure  from  all  my  cus- 
tomary surroundings  and  occupations  and  to  an  en- 
tirely novel  service  as  the  chief  executive  of  the  Philip- 
pines, twelve  thousand  miles  away. 

At  a  meeting  of  Members  of  Congress,  a  few  eve- 
nings later,  at  the  Washington  home  of  Representative 
Kent  of  California,  I  was  presented,  through  the  genial 
offices  of  the  Speaker,  Champ  Clark,  with  a  souvenir 
from  the  House  of  Representatives  as  a  token  of  good- 
will. Speeches  were  made  by  leaders  of  the  different 
political  factions,  including  the  Republican  minority 
leader,  James  A.  Mann,  and  Representative  Victor 
Murdock  from  Kansas,  for  the  Progressives. 

I  then  made  the  acquaintance  of  General  Frank  Mc- 
Intyre,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Insular  Affairs,  a 
stanch  and  true  friend  in  many  an  hour  of  subsequent 
political  trial,  and  of  Major-General  Wood,  who  was 
cordiality  itself.  A  few  days  later  I  met  my  immediate 
chief,  Mr.  Garrison,  the  Secretary  of  War,  who  had 
been  absent  on  a  tour  of  the  army  posts  of  the  West 
at  the  time  of  my  appointment.  On  the  tenth  of  Sep- 
tember my  party  sailed  from  San  Francisco  on  the 
Pacific  Mail  liner  Manchuria,  westward  bound. 

These  personal  incidents  are  introduced  to  show 
the  atmosphere  of  kindly  good-will  in  official  circles 
which  surrounded  my  venture  into  this  new  line  of 
public  service,  an  atmosphere  from  which  political 
partizanship  was  entirely  lacking,  and  which  left  me 
utterly  unprepared  for  the  political  hornets'  nest  into 
which  I  stepped  upon  arrival  in  Manila.  The  distant 
horizon  seemed  very  bright.  To  be  sure,  I  was  con- 
scious of  the  possibilities  of  international  troubles  to 


INTRODUCTION  5 

come,  for  I  remember  my  farewell  to  my  lifelong 
friend  James  W.  Gerard,  just  appointed  Ambassador 
to  Germany,  when  I  told  him  that  he  and  I  were  going 
to  the  two  places  in  the  world  where  something  was 
likely  to  happen.    It  happened  to  him ! 

My  experiences  in  the  Philippines,  while  of  an  un- 
expected nature,  were  only  such  as  any  man  should 
be  prepared  to  face  if  charged  with  putting  into  effect 
in  a  remote  station  a  policy  which  runs  counter  to  the 
wishes  or  ambitions  of  his  fellow-countrymen  on  the 
spot.  All  through  my  service  I  received  generous 
support  from  the  President  and  in  Congress,  where 
there  was  no  disposition  to  play  politics  with  Philip- 
pine administration.  When,  later  on,  the  Eepublicans 
gained  control  of  Congress,  nothing  was  ever  done  by 
them  to  embarrass  or  interfere  with  the  Philippine 
situation.  From  Americans  in  the  islands  I  received 
very  little  support. 

President  "Wilson,  with  his  fine  inspiration  for 
political  liberties,  and  in  accordance  with  the  succes- 
sive pronouncements  of  Democratic  platforms,  was 
determined  to  bring  self-government  to  the  Filipinos 
and  hasten  the  day  of  their  independence.  He  would 
not  appoint  any  American  resident  of  the  Philippines 
to  the  Philippine  Commission.  In  a  long  conversa- 
tion, the  Sunday  morning  before  I  left  Washington,  he 
gave  me  in  general  terms  his  instructions  as  to  Philip- 
pine self-government.  I  found  him  wonderfully  well 
informed  as  to  Philippine  conditions,  as  I  had  pre- 
viously found  him  a  master  of  the  intricacies  of  tariff 
revision.  He  was  then,  as  always,  when  I  have  been 
privileged  to  meet  him,  of  the  most  charming  courtesy. 
In  after  years,  thinking  over  this  conversation  with 


6        MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

him,  I  could  find  only  one  point  upon  which  he  seemed 
to  me  to  have  been  misinformed.  He  told  me  that  the 
Filipinos  were  so  afraid  of  the  Moros  that  one  Fili- 
pino regiment  had  thrown  down  its  arms  and  refused 
to  go  into  action  against  them.  I  was  never  able  to 
trace  that  story  to  its  source,  and  all  my  own  observa- 
tion leads  me  to  believe  that  the  Filipino,  equally  well 
armed  and  reasonably  well  led,  is  the  match  for  the 
Moro  in  any  circumstances. 

Upon  leaving  the  "White  House,  I  met  at  the  Metro- 
politan Club  the  Hon.  Charles  E.  Magoon,  formerly 
Governor  of  the  Canal  Zone  and  of  Cuba.  He  told  me 
of  his  ' '  instructions ' '  upon  his  last  appointment.  Pass- 
ing through  Washington,  he  was  invited  to  the  WTiite 
House  to  dinner.  As  he  greeted  Mr.  Eoosevelt,  the 
President  put  his  finger  on  Magoon 's  shirt  stud  and 
said:  "You  to  Cuba."  "What  instructions  do  you 
give  me,  Mr.  President  ? ' '  Mr.  Roosevelt  replied : ' '  Go 
see  Root."  Next  morning  Governor  Magoon  reported 
to  Secretary  Root  for  instructions,  and  the  secretary 
said,  "Oh,  well,  I  have  no  instructions;  just  go  gov- 
ern." This  was  as  laconic  as  President  Grant's  ad- 
vice to  the  Japanese,  when,  during  his  trip  around  the 
world,  they  asked  him  how  they  could  learn  the  art  of 
self-government.  "Govern  yourselves!"  was  the 
reply. 

Few  judges  elected  to  executive  office  make  success- 
ful administrators;  their  inclination  is  to  spend  all 
their  time  weighing  the  pros  and  cons  of  every  ques- 
tion, when  what  is  needed  are  decision  and  despatch. 
Few  legislators  find  their  previous  experience  partic- 
ularly useful  in  executive  office;  their  training  is  all 
toward  talk,  and  then  more  talk,  and  divided  responsi- 


INTRODUCTION  7 

bility ;  they  have,  however,  one  characteristic  of  prime 
advantage  in  a  democratic  as  opposed  to  an  autocratic 
system:  they  have  a  proper  appreciation  of  that  pe- 
culiar psychology  known  as  the  legislative  mind,  and 
an  earnest  disposition  to  learn  public  opinion.  The 
great  danger  to  an  executive,  after  all,  is  that  he  shall 
come  to  rely  more  and  more  exclusively  on  his  own 
opinion,  and  lose  touch  with  the  public.  In  my  farewell 
call  upon  Secretary  Bryan  I  expressed  the  hope  that 
with  the  great  powers  given  by  law  to  the  Governor- 
General  of  the  Philippines  I  should  not  become  auto- 
cratic. That  hope  and  my  desire  to  bring  all  the  lib- 
erties possible  to  the  Filipino  people  were  my  qualifi- 
cations for  the  office  with  which  President  Wilson  and 
the  Senate  had  entrusted  me. 

There  is  no  room  in  the  United  States  Constitution 
for  colonies ;  officially  speaking,  we  have  none.  Alaska 
and  Hawaii  are  territories;  Porto  Rico  and  the  Phil- 
ippines dependencies,  or  insular  possessions.  Guam, 
Samoa,  the  Virgin  Islands,  the  Canal  Zone — all  are 
naval  or  military  stations.  There  are  few  traditions 
of  colonial  service  in  the  United  States.  Perhaps  that 
very  freedom  from  fixed  ideas  and  red-tape  has  enabled 
our  Government  to  make  a  swifter  development  of 
policy  than  is  possible  in  the  European  colonial  offices. 
There  is  no  great  body  of  " elder  statesmen"  returning 
home  after  a  lifetime  of  colonial  service  with  hidebound 
opinions  as  to  how  things  should  be  done,  determined 
to  resist  any  and  all  changes  in  their  ideas  of  colonial 
management.  The  arguments  in  favor  of  a  permanent 
Colonial  Civil  Service  are,  after  all,  similar  to  those  in 
behalf  of  a  permanent  body  of  diplomatic  officers ;  the 
drawbacks  are  the  same.     Such  permanent  officials 


8         MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

imbibe,  in  the  one  case,  a  rigid  caste  attitude  toward 
the  " subject  races,"  and  in  the  other  they  are  affected 
by  the  atmosphere  of  ceremonial  court  intrigue  and 
do  not  keep  up  with  the  progress  of  thought  in  the 
home  land.  The  British,  an  intensely  practical  race, 
select  for  viceroy  of  their  greatest  possession,  India, 
not  a  member  of  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  but  some  man 
fresh  from  active  public  life  at  home. 

Up  to  1913,  the  only  traditions  of  Philippine  service 
known  in  the  United  States  were  those  of  the  "Taft 
dynasty,"  as  it  became  known,  which  began  with  Mr. 
Taft 's  inauguration  as  civil  governor  in  1901  and  con- 
tinued in  unbroken  succession  through  his  terms  as 
Secretary  of  War  and  President.  The  generous  sym- 
pathies and  wise  liberalism  of  his  earlier  management 
of  the  Philippine  problem,  which  won  over  many  Fil- 
ipinos to  support  American  policies,  seem  to  have 
dwindled  and  vanished  as  he  grew  older  and  as  he  fell 
out  of  personal  touch  with  the  Philippines.  Later 
a  bureaucracy  was  built  up  around  his  policy,  assum- 
ing toward  the  subject  race  all  the  hard  and  patroniz- 
ing superiority  typical  of  European  colonial  adminis- 
trators of  modern  times.  Distrust  of  the  Filipino  and 
a  determination  to  see  him  kept  as  a  dependent  as  long 
as  possible  were  the  new  features  of  the  policy.  The 
governors-general  who  succeeded  Mr.  Taft  were  as 
able  and  conscientious  a  set  of  administrators  as  our 
country  could  wish  for,  but  the  Filipinos  were  becom- 
ing yearly  more  restless  and  dissatisfied,  and  the  Chief 
of  Constabulary,  General  Harry  H.  Bandholtz,  had 
predicted  in  his  report  for  1912  the  probability  of  dis- 
turoances  in  the  provinces.  Growing  distrust  and  ill- 
feeling  between  the  two  races  were  more  evident  each 


INTRODUCTION  9 

year.  The  Taft  dynasty,  which  had  done  so  much  for 
the  Filipinos,  and  made  such  a  contribution  to  the  prob- 
lem of  colonial  government,  seemed  to  have  reached 
the  end  of  its  rope.  Its  representatives  could  not  go 
backward,  and  were  unwilling  to  move  forward ;  they 
had  started  a  national  movement  in  the  Philippines, 
and  then  wished  to  arrest  it  in  mid-career;  they  had 
found  that  such  principles  as  liberty  and  self-govern- 
ment cannot  be  turned  on  and  off  like  water  from  a  tap, 
however  benevolent  the  hand  in  control.  An  explosion 
was  to  be  expected  soon. 


CHAPTER   n 

The  Filipino  Race 

WHAT  are  the  Philippines,  and  where  are  they? 
These  were  the  questions  asked  by  the  average 
American  when  news  came  that  the  United  States  had 
acquired  title  to  these  strange  and  far-away  lands,  by 
the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  December,  1898.  It  was  ex- 
plained that  they  are  a  group  of  about  three  thousand 
islands,  half-way  around  the  world  from  us ;  that  they 
had  been  held  by  our  recent  foes,  the  Spanish,  for  more 
than  three  and  a  half  centuries;  and,  above  all,  that 
Manila  Bay  was  the  scene  of  the  naval  victory  which 
brought  undying  fame  to  Admiral  Dewey.  They 
looked  very  small  upon  the  map  of  the  Eastern  Hemi- 
sphere, and  it  was  difficult  to  believe  that  their  land 
surface  was  as  large  as  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Delaware  combined;  as  large  as  Great 
Britain  and  slightly  smaller  than  Japan.  The  islands 
were  known  to  contain  a  population  larger  than  about 
twenty  of  the  modern  states  of  the  world.  Concerning 
the  inhabitants  of  these  scattered  islands  virtually 
nothing  was  then  known  in  the  United  States.  It  is 
true  that  Dewey  had  reported  that  the  Filipinos  were 
more  fit  for  self-government  than  the  Cubans,  but  oth- 
ers described  them  as  ferocious  head-hunting  savages. 
The  best-known  expression  of  Filipino  sentiment  was 
the  farewell  hymn  of  patriotism  written  by  Dr.  Jose 
Rizal  the  night  before  his  execution  by  the  Spanish  in 

10 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  11 

1896,  which  had  caused  a  stir  of  sympathy  around  the 
world.  But  the  chief  source  of  our  knowledge  were 
Spanish  writers  who  were  evidently  anxious  to  justify 
their  administration  of  the  islands,  and,  so  far  as  the 
native  inhabitants  were  concerned,  their  chronicles  of 
later  centuries  were  mainly  the  type  of  literary  effort 
which  a  jailer  might  be  expected  to  produce  concerning 
prisoners  behind  the  bars.  The  writings  of  Rizal  and 
of  European  scientists  and  travelers  such  as  La  Gir- 
oniere,  Jagor,  and  Blumentritt,  were  virtually  un- 
known in  America. 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  of  course,  to  write  a  history 
of  the  Philippines;  others  far  better  qualified  than  I 
are  producing,  year  by  year,  " histories"  of  the  past. 
But  it  is  fair  to  enquire,  What  is  history?  Is  it  any- 
thing more  than  the  deduction  a  certain  man  makes 
from  certain  (or  uncertain)  facts?  Do  not  most  his- 
torians start  with  a  concrete  thesis,  and  then  develop 
it  to  suit  themselves?  Were  we  not  all  brought  up  to 
worship  at  the  shrine  of  Napoleon,  Alexander,  and 
Caesar?  And  now  comes  H.  G.  Wells  and  outlines  all 
three  as  unmitigated  curses  to  the  human  race;  the 
third  Napoleon,  he  says,  was  a  much  abler  and  more 
astute  man  than  the  first;  Alexander  was  a  vain  and 
drunken  adventurer.  Ferrero  tells  us  that  the  his- 
toric romance  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra  was  merely  a 
political  alliance  to  dominate  the  eastern  half  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  Even  statistics,  as  every  legislator 
knows,  can  often  be  used  to  prove  opposite  arguments 
upon  the  same  point.  The  people  of  each  great  nation 
are  convinced  that  their  own  culture  is  superior  to 
that  of  all  others  and  their  own  flag  the  only  real 
symbol  of  justice  and  honor. 


12       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

In  attempting  a  very  brief  review  of  the  history  of 
the  Philippines,  I  wish  to  admit  my  own  bias,  which 
has  been  acquired  not  by  deliberate  intent  but 
through  nearly  eight  years  of  effort  to  understand  the 
Filipino  people,  and  from  many  travels  in  other  lands : 
it  is  that  possession  of  national  characteristics  by  acci- 
dent of  birth  is  a  fallacy;  that  pride  of  race  is  justly 
based  only  upon  the  training  and  collective  circum- 
stances of  existing  racial  life, — not  upon  inherited  race 
instinct;  that  men  are  all,  by  nature,  very  much  the 
same,  with  similar  mental  processes,  wants,  and  ambi- 
tions, given  a  similar  training  and  environment;  that 
the  brotherhood  of  man  is  a  fact,  and  that  a  profound 
philosophical  truth  is  embodied  in  the  statement  that 
"all  men  are  created  equal."  Nothing  arouses  so 
much  fury  and  resentment  among  a  certain  class  of 
writers  as  the  phrase  just  quoted  from  our  Declaration 
of  Independence.  The  inequality  of  men  comes  from 
their  training  and  education,  not  from  their  physical 
birth.  Our  fetters,  mental  and  political,  are  imposed 
upon  us  by  our  fellow-man;  our  failures  to  attain  a 
moderate  level  of  civilization  are  due  to  lack  of  oppor- 
tunity, or  to  the  selfishness,  rapacity,  egotism,  bigotry, 
or  superstition  of  others. 

Most  of  the  travelers'  tales  of  the  great  age  of 
modern  exploration,  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  are  replete  with  purely  superficial  observa- 
tions upon  the  different  races  of  man.  The  ordinary 
modern  of  European  descent  regards  any  difference 
from  his  own  type  as  not  only  a  mark  of  inferiority  but 
an  absolute  offense.  He  cites  differences  of  the  sort 
as  arguments  why  such  people  as  exhibit  them  should 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  13 

be  either  exterminated  or  else  subjected  and  made  to 
work  for  his  benefit.  Least  of  all  is  he  willing  to  admit 
that  these  peoples  are  capable  of  adopting  or  assim- 
ilating his  own  standard  of  civilization.  Finally,  he  is 
usually  ignorant  concerning  the  facts  of  the  immediate 
past  of  his  own  nation,  and  is  not  told  how  very  recent 
is  anything  like  general  education  among  the  peoples 
of  the  Western  world.  There  is  a  fascinating  and  as 
yet  almost  unexplored  field  of  theory  and  conjecture  as 
to  the  striking  resemblances  of  custom  and  adornment 
of  ancient  mankind,  in  all  widely  different  portions  of 
the  world.  Historically  speaking,  the  marked  differ- 
ences in  the  races  of  modern  man  are  acquired,  not 
inherent.  As  James  Bryce  says  in  his  recent  great 
work  on  " Modern  Domocracies,,:  "All  fairly  normal 
men  have  like  passions  and  desires.  They  are  stirred 
by  like  motives,  they  think  upon  similar  lines." 

The  Filipinos  are  of  Malay  descent.  In  the  dim  ages 
of  the  past,  their  ancestors  came  from  the  nest  of  the 
human  races  in  central  Asia.  A  stream  of  Mongoloid 
emigration  poured  down  in  successive  waves  from 
behind  the  mountains  of  eastern  Tibet,  and  over  what 
is  now  southern  China,  Siam,  Burma,  the  Malay  Pen- 
insula, and  the  Dutch  East  Indies.  The  Filipino  of 
to-day  is  first  cousin  to  the  natives  of  Java  and  Su- 
matra, and  second  cousin  to  the  Siamese.  These  pre- 
historic emigrants  were  quick  to  take  up  the  life  of  the 
water,  since,  in  the  impenetrable  jungles  along  their 
route,  the  rivers  and  tidal  shores  offered  the  easiest 
means  of  travel.  They  became  hunters  and  fishermen, 
perforce  abandoning  the  pastoral  life  of  their  ances- 
tors, and  bold  sailors,  slipping  from  land  to  land  across 


14      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  eastern  seas.  Their  type  of  village  was  not  unlike 
that  of  the  ancient  lake-dwellers  in  Switzerland,  the 
houses  built  on  tall  piles,  out  over  the  water,  for  pur- 
poses of  protection  as  well  as  sanitation.  A  perfect 
type  of  these  ancient  villages  survives  to-day  in 
Brunei,  a  British  protectorate  in  west  Borneo,  but  the 
city  is  fast  dwindling  and  will  soon  be  gone  forever. 

The  government  of  these  people  was  purely  patri- 
archal, like  that  of  their  far-away  forebears  in  central 
Asia.  Their  villages  were  largely  self-governing  com- 
munities, presided  over  by  a  chief  whose  office  had 
become  hereditary.  At  different  times  these  villages 
combined  in  confederacies,  or  were  conquered  and 
bound  into  a  kingdom.  The  village  communities  were 
self-sustaining,  and  travel  was  impelled  chiefly  by  de- 
sire for  conquest  or  because  of  over-population.  Com- 
merce was  brought  to  them  by  the  Chinese  or  the 
Arabs,  and  agriculture  by  the  natives  of  India.  The 
free  and  adventurous  spirit  of  the  hunter  and  the  rov- 
ing fisherman  developed  a  brave  and  reckless  type 
which  in  later  ages  came  to  be  known  for  a  guerilla 
warfare  by  sea  that  stamped  them  as  pirates.  Those 
who  so  called  them  had,  themselves,  possibly  as  good 
a  title  to  the  name. 

The  Philippine  Islands  were  settled  by  adventurous 
voyagers  who  made  their  way  thither  in  small 
boats,  from  the  islands  of  Java  and  Sumatra.  We 
can  picture  them  in  their  long,  slender  vintas  with 
bamboo  outriggers,  the  paddles  beating  in  unison, 
the  warriors  chanting,  with  sword  and  spear  ready 
at  hand;  we  can  see  their  eager  faces  as  they  leap 
ashore  from  the   sparkling  waters   of  Manila   Bay 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  15 

to  found  the  nucleus  of  a  nation  which  now,  long 
ages  after,  is  growing  to  manhood.  So  the  invading 
Danes,  Angles,  and  Saxons,  a  little  later  on  in  history, 
must  have  appeared  to  the  terrified  inhabitants  of 
early  Britain.  Early  Chinese  and  Arabic  chronicles 
refer  to  large  settled  communities  in  what  are  now 
the  islands  of  Jolo,  Mindoro,  and  Luzon  as  long 
ago  as  the  fourth  century.  Through  the  Middle 
Ages  infusions  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  blood  from 
the  north  and  of  Hindu  from  the  south  were  marked, 
and  many  evidences  of  such  ancestral  strains  are  visi- 
ble to-day.  Nor,  when  these  Malay  wanderers  first 
reached  the  islands,  were  they  uninhabited.  The  orig- 
inal native  type  known  to-day  as  the  Negrito,  a  very 
small  black  man  with  woolly  hair,  had  already  been 
forced  to  take  to  a  nomadic  life,  in  the  dense  forests 
of  the  higher  mountains,  by  the  Indonesians,  who  were 
bolder,  better  armed,  and  better  organized.  They  in 
turn  were  the  ancestors  of  the  peoples  known  to-day  as 
the  Igorots  and  Ifugaos,  and  were  later  on  driven  into 
the  mountains  by  the  successive  waves  of  Malay  immi- 
gration. There  are  to-day  in  the  Philippines  about 
70,000  Negritos  *  of  more  or  less  pure  blood,  and  about 
400,000  other  mountaineers  of  non-Malay  types,  in 
whom,  however,  there  is  a  strong  infusion  of  Malay  or 
Polynesian  blood.  Most  of  the  remaining  population  of 
the  islands,  totaling  10,300,000  in  the  census  of  1918, 

Professor  H.  Otley  Beyer,  in  "Population  of  the  Philippine  Islands 
in  1916,"  gives  the  following  figures: 

Unclassified  Pagan  Peoples  (mostly  aboriginal  primitive  types)  : 

1.  Distinct  Negrito  and  Negroid  types 35,926 

2.  Non-Negroid  or  Semi-Negroid  types 46,015 

Total        81,941 


16      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

are  of  a  fairly  uniform  Malay  type.1  They  are  of  me- 
dium stature,  with  brown  complexion  and  straight  black 
hair  and  virtually  no  beard  or  mustache ;  their  eyes  are 
black  or  dark  brown,  set  rather  slanting  under  an  in- 
telligent brow ;  their  muscular  development  is  excellent, 
with  broad  shoulders,  slender  waists,  and  small  hands 
and  feet.  They  are  brave,  active,  graceful,  and  inured 
to  a  hardy  outdoor  life,  and  still  devoted  to  the  chase 
and  fond  of  living  on  or  near  the  water.  An  indica- 
tion that  the  race,  before  entering  the  tropics,  was 
originally  much  lighter  in  color  may  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  new-born  infants  are  generally  paler  of 
complexion  than  their  parents. 

It  is  the  custom  to  deny  to  the  Malay  people  the 
traditions  of  great  organized  government.  The  indi- 
vidualism of  isolated  village  life  is  an  obstacle  to  cen- 
tralized power.  But  many  times  in  recorded  history 
empires  vast  in  territory  but  sparse  in  population  have 
been  founded  by  Malay  chieftains,  formed  from  shift- 
ing groups  of  lesser  kingdoms.  Many  of  their  royal 
families  to-day,  shorn  of  their  powers,  still  claim  de- 
scent from  such  heroes  of  antiquity  as  Alexander  and 
Mohammed.  The  greatest  of  all  their  efforts  at  em- 
pire was  that  of  Madjapahit  of  Java,  for  the  history  of 
which  in  relation  to  the  Philippines  I  am  indebted  to 
Professor  H.  Otley  Beyer  of  the  University  of  the 
Philippines. 

1  In  the  Philippine  Census  of  1920  the  population  of  the  islands  is 
estimated  as  follows : 

Christian  population 9,463,731 

Mohammedan    394,964 

Pagans   437,622 

Other   religions    54,413 

Total  10,350,730 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  17 

In  a  quarrel  between  princes  of  the  leading  house  in 
Java  in  1292,  Raden  Widjaya  appealed  to  the  Chinese 
Emperor  Kublai  Khan  for  aid;  the  Great  Khan  sent 
two  of  his  ablest  generals,  with  a  large  fleet  and  twenty 
thousand  troops.  With  their  assistance,  Raden  Wid- 
jaya established  himself  upon  the  throne  and  then 
turned  upon  his  Chinese  allies,  driving  them  out  of 
Java  with  a  loss  of  more  than  three  thousand  men. 
From  them  he  had  learned  the  use  of  firearms,  which 
explains  his  subsequent  success  in  founding  a  large 
empire  and  subjugating  all  his  neighbors.  The  great- 
est of  the  line  of  rulers  of  Madjapahit  was  the  fourth, 
named  Hayam  Wuruk,  and  it  was  during  his  reign  of 
fifty  years  in  the  fourteenth  century  that  the  empire 
attained  its  greatest  dimensions,  including  the  whole 
Malay  Archipelago,  Borneo,  Celebes,  and  the  Phil- 
ippines, as  well  as  Java  and  Sumatra.  The  kin- 
dred races  in  Siam  and  Cambodia  were  rendered  trib- 
utary. Indian- Javanese  culture  spread  rapidly 
through  the  empire,  and  many  evidences  of  it  survive 
to-day.  In  the  Philippines  the  chief  centers  of  the 
imperial  power,  as  mentioned  in  their  records,  were  on 
Manila  Bay,  near  Lake  Lanao  in  Mindanao,  and  in 
Sulu.  There  and  in  many  other  places  traces  of  their 
culture  survive ;  even  among  such  primitive  peoples  as 
the  pagan  Mangyans  of  Mindoro,  the  inhabitants  to- 
day communicate  with  one  another  in  the  old  Indian 
syllabic  writing.  The  imperial  federation  was  finally 
overthrown  by  the  Mohammedan  incursions  from  the 
west.  To  them  and  to  the  first  Spanish  priests  is  due 
the  destruction  of  the  ancient  culture  of  the  people  of 
the  Philippines. 

In  considering  the  Philippines,  the  importance  of 


18      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

this  long  membership  in  the  empire  of  Madjapahit, 
lasting  nearly  two  centuries,  is  not  often  appreciated. 
This  was  the  time  of  greatest  civilization  in  ancient 
Java.  The  reforms  of  Buddha,  revived  in  India  by  the 
great  King  Asoka,  and  soon  stifled  there  by  the  priest- 
craft, had  flourished  in  Java  for  many  centuries.  The 
best  ideas  of  early  Hindu  culture,  the  traditions  of 
prehistoric  Aryan  ideas,  and  many  words  of  Aryan 
origin,  were  thus  disseminated  through  the  islands  of 
the  East  Indies.  The  Philippines  received  their  share, 
and  to-day  many  of  the  personal  traits  or  manners  of 
simple  village  life  there,  especially  the  very  things 
which  strike  Americans  as  peculiar,  are  also  to  be 
noted  by  the  most  casual  observer  in  India.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  state  that  the  long-cherished  traditions  of 
Hindu  culture  as  apart  from  religion,  surviving  almost 
without  effort  or  intention  through  the  ages,  are  to-day 
the  key  to  Filipino  character.  "The  very  name  of  the 
most  numerous  division  of  the  Filipinos — Visayans — 
is  the  Vishaya,  or  merchant  and  landowning  class  of 
the  Aryan  Rig-Vedas.  Fortunately  for  the  Filipinos, 
the  grotesque  religious  customs  of  the  modern 
Brahmin  priests  seem  never  to  have  reached  them; 
their  instruction  was  received  from  the  purer,  more 
spiritual,  and  infinitely  more  decent  priesthood  of  the 
reformed  Buddhistic  schools  in  Java. 

Then  came  the  great  wave  of  Mohammedan  con- 
quest. It  was  carried  to  Mindanao  and  Sulu  by  the 
petty  kings  of  Sumatra,  the  Malay  Straits,  and  Borneo. 
By  the  fifteenth  century,  Mohammedanism  was  firmly 
established  in  Sulu  and  Mindanao.  Proselyting  with 
fire  and  sword  was  being  carried  forward  zealously, 
from  island  to  island.    Then  came  the  Portuguese  and 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  19 

the  Spaniards,  and  tinder  the  latter  the  Cross  and 
Crescent  met  in  combat  in  the  southern  islands  of  the 
Philippines,  and  continued  in  fierce  conflict  at  inter- 
vals down  to  the  very  days  of  American  occupation. 
Like  the  Christian  invaders  of  a  later  day,  the  Moham- 
medans brought  monotheism  to  the  Philippines,  but 
they  also  taught  abhorrence  of  idolatry,  and  estab- 
lished, among  all  true  believers,  a  rough  form  of  social 
democracy. 

The  year  1521  is  one  of  the  great  dates  of  Philippine 
history,  in  fact,  the  first  authentic  date  of  European 
records.  Then  it  was  that  Fernando  Magellan,  the  Por- 
tuguese navigator  in  the  employ  of  the  King  of  Spain, 
landed  at  Cebii,  and  thus  ended  his  immortal  voyage  of 
adventure,  and,  incidentally,  lost  his  life.  The  peoples 
of  Malaysia  were  not  without  a  rough  kind  of- armor, — 
indeed,  not  without  cannon.  But  the  Spanish  arms  and 
equipment  were  superior.  Cautious  negotiations  with 
the  King  of  Cebii  led  to  a  few  conversions  to  Chris- 
tianity. To  strengthen  the  impression  already  made, 
Magellan  offered  to  attack  and  subdue  the  petty  rival 
of  the  King  of  Cebu  across  the  narrow  straits,  on  Mac- 
tan  Island;  he  boastfully  insisted  that  he  could  do  it 
with  only  a  handful  of  his  own  men.  He  promptly 
met  his  death,  overwhelmed  by  numbers.  When  his 
one  surviving  ship  completed  the  voyage  around  the 
world,  the  King  of  Spain  remarked  that  it  was  lucky 
for  Magellan  that  he  had  lost  his  life  when  he  did, 
adding  that  he  would  have  received  worse  than  death 
if  he  had  returned  home,  because  of  his  conduct  in  the 
newly  "discovered"  lands. 

It  was  not  until  the  arrival  of  Legaspi  in  1565  that 
Spain  really  tried  to  colonize  her  new  possessions  in 


20       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  East  Indies.  This  really  great  man  extended  the 
sway  of  his  sovereign  through  most  of  the  Visayas  and 
Luzon  by  peaceful  and  sympathetic  negotiations,  and 
his  work  was  ably  carried  on  by  his  grandson,  Juan 
Salcedo.  From  that  day  until  the  surrender  of  Manila 
to  the  American  forces,  Spain  held  the  Philippines 
under  her  dominion,  except  for  a  brief  interval  in  1792 
when  England  occupied  the  islands. 

Many  volumes  have  been  written  concerning  the 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  Spanish  rule  in  the 
Philippines,  but  comparatively  little  about  the  Fil- 
ipinos of  those  days.  In  other  words,  the  Filipinos  are 
generally  referred  to  scornfully  as  "Indios"  (In- 
dians), while  pages  are  devoted  to  glorification  of 
Spanish  exploits  and  achievements.  The  best  that  can 
be  said  of  Spain  in  the  islands  is  that  she  christianized 
them,  and  thus  set  up  the  only  Christian  country  in 
the  Orient, — with  much  of  Christianity's  modern  out- 
look upon  life.  To  the  women,  particularly,  Christian- 
ity brought  dignity  and  freedom  from  Hindu  and  Mo- 
hammedan degradations. 

While  the  Spanish  conquistadores  of  the  vast  em- 
pire in  America  held  the  sword  in  the  right  hand  and 
the  cross  in  the  left,  their  chief  interest  was  economic. 
Millions  of  unhappy  Indians  perished  around  the 
shores  of  the  Caribbean  to  satisfy  the  Spanish  adven- 
turers' lust  for  wealth,  as  the  good  Father  las  Casas 
testifies.  The  Spanish  Viceroy  Toledo,  in  Peru,  esti- 
mated that  in  the  seventeenth  century  there  were  eight 
million  Incas  living;  in  two  hundred  years  these  had 
been  reduced  to  eight  hundred  thousand.  Fate  was 
kinder  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Philippines.  Here 
were  little  gold  and  no  silver,  no  precious  stones,  ex- 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  21 

cept  pearls,  no  mines  to  be  worked.  To  be  sure,  the 
Spanish  arms  and  military  organization  in  the  early 
days  in  the  Philippines  destroyed  much  of  the  existing 
culture;  forced  labor  was  pitilessly  imposed  in  the 
shipyards  and  in  construction  of  the  monumental 
churches  which  still  exist;  conscript  service  in  the 
army  for  purposes  of  further  conquest  broke  up  thou- 
sands of  homes;  the  priests  in  zealous  rage  against 
paganism  destroyed  all  existing  records,  all  writings 
and  works  of  art,  as  they  did  in  Mexico,  in  the  belief 
that  all  that  was  not  Christian  must  be  anti-Christian. 
One  Spanish  priest  boasted  of  having  destroyed  more 
than  three  hundred  scrolls  written  in  the  native  char- 
acters. Early  Spanish  writers  admit  that  literacy  was 
fairly  wide-spread  when  they  took  the  Philippines, — 
more  than  could  be  said  of  the  Spain  of, that  day; 
certainly  the  literacy  of  the  " Indies* '  was  greater 
than  that  of  the  contemporary  Incas  of  Peru  or  the 
Aztecs.  Few  pre-Spanish  records  survive  to-day. 
However  much  we  may  lament  this  destruction  of  a 
culture,  we  must  admit  that  in  its  place  the  Spanish 
gave,  to  a  limited  number  of  Filipinos  at  least,  access 
to  the  splendid  tongue  of  old  Castile,  and  through 
that  to  all  the  glories  and  traditions  of  European 
civilization.  Those  interested  in  the  pre-Spanish  cul- 
ture of  the  islands  may  find  much  of  interest  in  the 
publications  of  Professor  Austin  Craig  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  the  Philippines. 

Spanish  administration  of  the  Philippines,  measured 
by  modern  standards,  was  a  failure.  The  colony  was 
poor  and  far  from  the  source  of  government.  Seldom 
could  the  Spanish  Crown  induce  the  best  men  to  go  to 
Manila;  many  of  those  who  went,  it  is  to  be  feared, 


22       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

were  induced  by  the  hope  of  clearing  up  a  great  for- 
tune outside  their  official  salaries.  Governmental  pol- 
icies, on  the  economic  side  especially,  were  monopo- 
listic, narrow,  and  foolish  in  the  extreme.  Once  a  year 
a  galleon  sailed  from  Acapulco,  Mexico,  to  Manila,  and 
then  sailed  back  with  the  change  in  the  monsoon.  For- 
eign traders  were  jealously  excluded.  China  regularly 
drained  the  Philippines  of  the  Mexican  currency 
brought  over  by  the  galleons ;  very  little  progress  was 
made  in  developing  the  islands,  or  in  educating  and 
elevating  the  people.  To  sum  it  all  up,  it  might  almost 
be  said  that  the  Philippines  sank  into  a  deep  sleep,  to 
be  awakened  at  last  by  Dewey's  guns. 

It  was,  however,  as  a  field  for  missionary  endeavor 
that  the  Philippines  were  chiefly  valued  through  these 
centuries  by  His  Most  Catholic  Majesty.  The  govern- 
ment soon  became  theocratic  in  substance,  if  not  in 
form.  The  Archbishop  of  Manila  was  nearly  always 
the  real  power.  A  governor-general  who  did  not  sub- 
mit to  the  archbishop  and  the  religious  orders  was  soon 
recalled  to  Spain.  Governor-General  Bustamante,  in- 
deed, in  1719,  tried  to  reform  the  religious  orders,  and 
was  killed  on  the  steps  of  his  own  palace  by  agents  of 
the  priests.  In  the  provinces,  each  village  was  under 
the  actual  rule  of  a  priest.  So  absolute  was  the  con- 
trol of  the  priesthood  that  no  large  army  was  needed 
to  keep  the  people  in  subjection. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  point  out  instances  of  malfea- 
sance on  the  part  of  these  ecclesiastical  authorities. 
Religious  rule  in  civil  affairs  will  hardly  ever  with- 
stand the  searching  tests  of  modern  criticism;  too 
much  is  done  by  favor,  and  too  little  with  justice; 
character  is  stifled,  and  dogma  is  substituted  for  intel- 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  23 

ligence.  Progress  is  difficult  and  independence  of 
thought  savagely  stamped  out.  Nevertheless,  accord- 
ing to  their  lights  and  measured  by  the  standard  of 
their  day  and  generation,  most  of  these  priests  did  the 
best  they  could  for  their  flocks.  Many  of  them  were, 
indeed,  men  of  integrity  and  piety;  many,  moreover, 
gave  their  people  new  forms  of  agriculture  and  indus- 
try. For  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  we  hear  of  few 
attempts  at  general  revolt.  There  are  few  black  deeds 
to  record  such  as  stain  the  pages  of  other  colonial 
histories.  Nevertheless,  these  long  years  of  priestly 
domination  are  musty  with  the  dust  of  a  stationary 
civilization.  The  priests  imposed  their  religion  upon 
the  people,  but  in  turn  imbibed  some  of  their  supersti- 
tions and  gave  them  back  others. 

The  present  Archbishop  of  Manila,  Monsignor 
O'Doherty,  a  man  of  learning  and  piety,  agrees  with 
me,  unqualifiedly,  upon  the  advantages  of  the  present 
separation  of  Church  and  State. 

In  the  third  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
Spanish  sovereignty  in  the  Philippines  showed  unmis- 
takable evidences  of  decay  and  weakness.  How  differ- 
ent Philippine  history  might  have  been  if  the  present 
popular  and  enlightened  King  Alfonso  XIII  had  then 
been  on  the  throne !  Exercise  of  autocratic  power  by 
the  governors,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  had  led  to 
gross  abuses  of  power.  In  the  decades  from  1850 
onward  greed  and  arrogance  marked  the  religious 
orders,  which  had  absorbed  most  of  the  riches  and  the 
best  lands.  The  meager  recognition  of  the  people,  on 
the  part  of  the  Government,  grew  less  and  less.  The 
formation  of  secret  societies  among  the  people  was 
discovered  and  led  to  savage  reprisals.    The  last  Span- 


24      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

ish  archbishop,  Nozaleda,  was  the  most  bloodthirsty 
of  the  ecclesiastics.  The  Filipino  poet  Kizal  was  exe- 
cuted for  his  supposed  responsibility  for  revolutionary 
movements,  though  his  books,  which  were  then  not 
allowed  to  be  circulated,  show  that  his  main  protests 
were  against  the  excesses  of  the  priests,  and  his  chief 
demand  was  that  the  people  should  be  educated.  The 
insurrection  of  1896  broke  out  under  Andres  Bonifacio 
and  the  Spanish  authorities  were  unable  to  suppress  it. 
Aguinaldo  soon  became  the  military  leader  of  his  peo- 
ple. A  compromise  followed,  which  left  matters  in  a 
state  of  suspended  animation  until  the  war  with  the 
United  States  burst  upon  unhappy  Spain  soon  after- 
ward. 

In  wealth,  in  education,  in  political  rights,  the  mass 
of  the  Filipinos  had  advanced  but  little  in  the  three  and 
a  half  centuries  of  Spanish  rule.  In  each  locality,  it 
is  true,  the  sons  of  the  leading  men  were  selected  for 
education  at  Santo  Tomas  University  (founded  in 
1611)  and  the  other  church  colleges  in  Manila.  The 
more  ambitious  were  sent  later  by  their  parents  to 
complete  their  education  in  Spain,  France,  and  Ger- 
many. Groups  of  these  young  men  took  part  in  the 
various  liberal  movements  of  nineteenth-century 
Europe.  They  wrote  and  spoke  in  behalf  of  liberal 
institutions  for  their  countrymen  at  home,  in  terms 
which  would  have  cost  them  their  lives  in  the  Philip- 
pines; Eizal  was  put  to  death  upon  his  return  to  his 
native  land. 

In  Spain  several  of  these  young  Filipinos  rose  to 
eminence  in  the  public  service,  a  right  which  was  de- 
nied them  at  home  except  in  a  few  cases  in  the  minor 
judiciary.   In   the   eighties    and   nineties    a   brilliant 


THE  FILIPINO  EACE  25 

group  of  young  men — of  which  Kizal,  the  painter  Juan 
Luna,  M.  H.  del  Pilar,  Lopez  Jaena,  and  Dr.  Pardo  de 
Tavera  were  the  leading  spirits — made  a  deep  impres- 
sion in  the  literary  and  artistic  circles  of  Madrid, 
Paris,  and  Berlin.  A  newspaper  was  founded  by  them 
in  Madrid  to  further  their  political  views.  Although 
proscribed  in  the  Philippines,  their  books  and  articles 
were  circulated  sub  rosa  in  the  islands  and  helped  to 
consolidate  the  growing  unrest.  The  secret  society 
"Katipunan"  added  thousands  to  its  rolls.  The  Ma- 
sonic Order  was  particularly  hated  and  suspected  by 
the  Government.  At  the  time  of  the  revolution  of  1896 
against  Spain,  scores  of  prominent  Masons  were  as- 
rested  on  the  instigation  of  the  church  authorities  and 
imprisoned  in  Fort  Santiago ;  many  of  them  were  led 
before  the  firing-squad  on  the  old  Bagumbayan,  now 
the  Luneta,  in  Manila. 

Twenty  years  later,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  entertain- 
ing about  eight  hundred  Masons  in  Malacanan  Palace, 
the  very  spot  from  which  the  execution  of  so  many 
members  of  the  order  had  been  decreed.  In  Tondo, 
the  poorer  quarter  of  Manila,  there  stands  a  monu- 
ment to  these  Masonic  martyrs,  in  charge  of  one  of  the 
survivors  of  those  days,  Timoteo  Paez.  I  asked  him 
recently  whether  those  whose  lives  had  been  given  in 
the  days  of  revolution  would  be  satisfied  if  they  were 
alive  to-day,  and  he  answered  simply:  "En  este  dia, 
estabamos  'Indios';  hoy  dia,  somos  Filipinos.  [In 
that  day  we  were  'Indians';  now,  we  are  Filipinos.] " 

In  Spain  itself  the  attitude  of  the  court  and  people 
was  not  unfriendly  to  the  Filipinos.  The  Spaniard  at 
home  has  little  of  what  the  Anglo-Saxon  races  know 
as  race  prejudice.    At  one  time  delegates  from  the 


26      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Philippines  were  admitted  to  the  Spanish  Cortes,  but 
subsequently  this  privilege  was  withdrawn.  Promises 
of  liberal  reforms  were  made  from  time  to  time,  and 
then  promptly  forgotten.  Liberal  governors-general 
were  sent  out  occasionally,  only  to  fall  before  the 
reactionary  stand  of  the  Church  in  the  islands,  backed, 
as  it  probably  was,  by  the  united  body  of  Spanish  resi- 
dents. Such  liberals  were  succeeded  by  conservatives 
of  the  strictest  kind,  such  as  General  Weyler,  known 
to  us  as  ''Butcher  Weyler"  from  his  government  in 
Cuba  just  before  the  Spanish-American  War.  At  the 
behest  of  the  friars  Weyler  terminated  a  dispute  be- 
tween tenants  and  landlords  of  the  friar  lands  in 
Calamba  by  sending  out  the  artillery  and  shooting 
down  the  tenants. 

The  pitiful  decline  in  the  ability  of  Spanish  govern- 
ment in  the  eighteenth  and  ninteenth  centuries,  so  dra- 
matically portrayed  by  Buckle  in  his  History  of  Civil- 
ization, had,  of  course,  its  reflex  action  in  the  Philip- 
pines. Vanished  was  the  class  of  zealous,  inspired 
priests  and  bold  military  adventurers  who  had  been 
sent  to  the  Philippines  in  an  earlier  age.  Priests  were 
too  often  drawn  from  the  most  ignorant  type  of  peas- 
ant family,  except,  of  course,  those  of  the  Jesuit  Order, 
of  whom  there  were  always  very  few  in  the  islands. 
Governors,  too,  were  often  needy  noblemen,  sent  out 
to  recoup  their  fortunes;  lesser  government  officials 
too  frequently  favorites  or  parientes  of  persons  influ- 
ential at  court,  without  any  qualifications  for  colonial 
service, — indeed,  sometimes  entirely  illiterate.  With 
men  of  these  types  a  haughty  and  arrogant  suppres- 
sion of  the  Filipinos  was  due  not,  perhaps,  to  race 
prejudice,  but  to  a  secret  determination  to  assert  for 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  27 

the  Spanish  race  a  superiority  which,  in  their  own 
hearts,  they  knew  they  did  not  individually  possess. 
At  any  rate,  social  equality  was  rarely  accorded  even 
to  the  educated  Filipino,  and  to  the  governors  talk  of 
political  equality  was,  of  course,  rank  treason.  When 
the  storm  burst,  all  classes  of  Filipinos,  from  the  high- 
est to  the  lowest,  joined  in  the  insurrection,  and  the 
fight  was  of  the  fiercest  nature. 

One  of  the  leaders  of  those  days,  General  Juan 
Cailles  of  Laguna,  known  later  to  the  American  Army 
as  a  gallant  and  courtly  opponent,  told  me  recently  of 
the  violent  hatred  of  the  Spaniards  with  which  the 
Filipinos  went  into  battle.  His  forces  would  fire  four 
or  five  rounds  from  the  fifty  odd  rifles  they  possessed 
and  then  his  five  thousand  men  would  close  in  at  a  rush 
with  the  bolo,  absolutely  irresistible  except  to  well- 
placed  artillery.  No  wonder  the  feeble  and  inefficient 
Spanish  Government  was  unable  to  suppress  the  insur- 
rection. 

And  what  of  the  great  mass  of  Filipinos  during  these 
centuries?  The  novels  of  Jose  Rizal,  sympathetically 
translated  into  English  as  "The  Social  Cancer"  and 
"The  Reign  of  Greed,"  give  a  profoundly  touching 
picture  of  the  wrongs  and  oppressions  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen, — at  least,  of  those  upon  the  vast  friar 
estates.  He  paid  with  his  life  for  these  books,  but  if 
he  foresaw  coming  events  he  must  have  felt  that  the 
sacrifice  was  well  worth  while. 

It  would  be  idle,  however,  to  assert  that  all  the  gov- 
erning class  throughout  the  islands  were  of  the  type 
portrayed  by  Rizal,  or  that  this  excess  of  greed  and 
arrogance  on  their  part  had  been  of  very  long  stand- 
ing; no  people  would  have  long  endured  it,  least  of 


28      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

all  the  proud  and  self-respecting  Filipinos ;  indeed,  the 
insurrection  was  their  answer  to  it.  The  greater  part 
of  the  Filipino  people  during  these  centuries,  espe- 
cially in  the  less  settled  regions,  were  performing 
their  daily  round  of  agricultural  toil  under  more  or 
less  the  same  conditions  as  had  their  ancestors  for  gen- 
erations in  the  past, — a  few  hectares  of  rice  land,  or 
coffee-bushes,  a  cool  and  pleasant  bamboo  house  in  a 
grove  of  glorious  mango-trees,  the  patient  carabao  to 
do  the  plowing  and  take  the  grain  to  market,  here 
and  there  roads  and  bridges  to  connect  the  little  farm 
with  the  outer  world,  and  monumental  churches  for 
hours  of  religion,  art,  and  social  life.  Patriarchal  or 
feudal  life  in  the  remote  districts  was  still  the  order 
of  the  day.  Authority,  always  of  powerful  influence 
in  Malay  history,  was  elevated  to  the  rank  of  a  religion. 
In  the  villages  a  modified  form  of  self-government  was 
permitted,  though  the  local  priest  was  always  the 
power  behind  the  throne  and  the  court  of  last  resort. 
Schools  were  maintained  by  the  padres,  and  instruction 
given  in  the  native  tongue, — in  rare  instances  in  Span- 
ish. These  schools  were,  however,  skilfully  used  by 
the  Spanish  to  accentuate  and  develop  the  differences 
in  local  dialects.  Theirs  was  the  principle  "Divide 
and  rule."  Originally  all  speaking  the  Malay  tongue, 
the  Filipinos  were  encouraged  through  these  centuries 
to  enlarge  and  enrich  the  local  differences  of  pronun- 
ciation, until  to-day  the  Ilocano,  the  Tagalog,  and  the 
Visayan  can  hardly  converse  with  one  another  except 
through  English  or  Spanish.  The  grammars  written 
by  the  priests  accomplished  their  purpose.  Writing 
was  discouraged  by  them  except  upon  the  religious 
themes  prescribed  by  the  priest  himself.    Dr.  Niewen- 


THE  FILIPINO  RACE  29 

haus,  the  head  of  the  youthful  but  rapidly  growing 
Educational  Department  of  Java,  upon  his  second  visit 
of  inspection  to  the  Philippines  recently,  told  me  that 
in  Java,  in  twenty  years,  the  people  had  broken  down 
the  differences  between  their  five  dialects  and  fused 
them  all  again  into  one  Malay  tongue ;  it  was  his  opin- 
ion that  we  could,  with  our  much  larger  public-school 
system  in  the  Philippines,  amalgamate  the  large  num- 
ber of  local  dialects  into  one  tongue  within  five  years 
of  teaching  in  the  primary  grades. 

Finally,  the  rule  of  Spain  came  to  an  abrupt  end 
through  a  joint  assault  by  American  and  Filipino  arms. 
More  than  three  centuries  of  human  life  had  been 
passed  in  a  dream  of  religious  government.  The 
civitas  dei  which  animated  the  noblest  souls  of  medi- 
eval Europe  reached  a  qualified  reality  in  the  Philip- 
pines. The  final  abuses  of  power  and  departure  from 
the  earlier  and  higher  standards  naturally  brought 
their  own  punishment.  Her  Oriental  empire  is  for- 
ever lost  to  Spain,  and  to-day  comparatively  little  of 
Spanish  influence  and  Spanish  culture  remains  to  test- 
ify to  her  long  domination  of  the  Philippines.  With 
the  older  generation  this  in  turn  will  pass  away  before 
the  practical  directness  of  the  American  school  system. 
Only  in  the  Church,  invigorated  and  reformed,  will 
the  Spanish  heritage  long  endure. 

It  is  the  custom  among  many  Americans  to  refer 
carelessly  to  the  Filipinos  as  Spanish- Americans. 
They  have  never  been  truly  Spanish,  and  are  not  Amer- 
ican by  race.  They  might  have,  in  a  truer  sense,  pos- 
sessed the  Spanish  culture  of  the  past,  had  their  mas- 
ters educated  them  in  the  beautiful  idiom  of  Castile, 
but  this  the  Spaniards  refused  to  do.    Many  Filipino 


30       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

intellectuals  to-day  still  prefer  and  admire  the  Latin 
culture,  but  this  was  always  denied  to  the  common 
people.  A  few  traces  of  the  Spanish  social  system 
still  prevail  in  customs,  in  manners  of  expression,  and 
in  ceremonies.  Far  stronger  and  more  enduring,  how- 
ever, is  the  Filipinos '  own  culture ;  and  the  simple  and 
dignified  customs  of  village  life  to-day  do  not,  in  all 
probability,  vary  substantially  from  those  handed 
down  to  these  people  by  tradition  from  the  remote 
past.  Nothing  is  so  quick  to  destroy  memory  and 
family  tradition  as  wide-spread  education.  I  remem- 
ber attending  the  pagan  religious  ceremonies  of  the 
rice  harvest  in  an  Ifugao  village  in  the  mountains  of 
Luzon ;  the  head  of  the  house  was  chanting  the  names 
of  his  ancestors,  of  whom  he  could  enumerate  thirty- 
five, — a  modern  imitation  of  the  Book  of  Genesis! 
There  were  five  old  men  in  that  village  who  could  re- 
peat without  differing  from  one  another  the  whole 
saga  of  the  Ifugaos,  though  the  poem  took  three  days 
to  recite.  When  these  remote  mountaineers  have 
learned  to  read  and  write,  these  marvelous  feats  of 
memory  will  have  disappeared,  together  with  the  neces- 
sity for  them.  The  great  mass  of  Christian  Filipinos 
were  left  uninspired  and  untaught  during  all  the  gen- 
erations of  sleepy  Spanish  rule.  Into  this  land  of 
dreams  America  burst  with  astonishing  energy;  in 
twenty  years  American  ideas  have  worked  a  social 
revolution. 


CHAPTER  ni 

Earlier  Years  of  American  Occupation 

OUR  occupation  of  the  Philippines  was  the  most 
unexpected  result  of  our  war  with  Spain ;  it  was 
purely  fortuitous  in  the  beginning,  and  simply  the 
logical  result  of  Dewey's  brilliant  victory  in  Manila 
Bay  on  May  1,  1898.  No  doubt,  the  final  disposition 
of  the  Philippine  Islands  was  the  subject  of  much  dip- 
lomatic intrigue  and  international  jealousy.  Germany 
had,  to  her  ultimate  complete  undoing,  recently  aban- 
doned Bismarck's  precepts  concerning  colonization 
and  had  shared  in  the  division  by  other  European 
powers  of  vast  African  territories.  She  had  purchased 
from  Spain  the  Caroline  and  the  Ladrone  Islands  a 
few  months  before  the  Spanish-American  War  began, 
and  is  believed  to  have  been  negotiating  for  the  Phil- 
ippines. When  war  was  declared,  the  United  States 
had  but  one  friend  among  the  European  powers, — 
Great  Britain.  Immediately  after  Dewey's  annihila- 
tion of  the  Spanish  fleet  at  Cavite,  a  German  warship 
drew  alongside  Commodore  Dewey's  ship  in  a  pro- 
voking and  arrogant  manner;  Dewey's  firm  stand, 
and  the  openly  expressed  friendship  of  the  British 
commander,  Captain  Chichester,  who  promptly  placed 
his  own  ship  facing  the  German,  probably  averted 
aggressive  action  on  the  part  of  the  kaiser. 

Indeed,  it  seems  entirely  probable  that  Admiral  von 
Diedrichs  came  to  Manila  Bay  as  the  result  of  some 

31 


32      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

negotiations  then  pending  with  Spain,  and  it  seems 
equally  probable  that  some  one  high  in  authority  in  the 
United  States  Government  had  previously,  in  a  pos- 
sibly unauthorized  exercise  of  power,  expressed  to 
Germany  our  acquiescence  in  her  ambitions. 

Our  country  thrilled  with  pride  in  Dewey 's  victory ; 
our  people,  naturally  enough,  were  carried  on  a  wave 
of  patriotic  imperialism  by  our  easy  successes  in  arms. 
I  have  but  little  doubt  that  the  British  Government 
urged  our  own  to  keep  the  Philippines,  so  that  the 
islands  should  not  fall  into  the  hands «of  her  rivals. 
American  armies  arrived  a  few  weeks  later  and  Manila 
was  taken  after  the  firing  of  a  few  shots  by  the  Span- 
ish commander  to  save  his  honor,  and  under  ^previous 
arrangement  with  the  American  general.  The  rest  of 
the  Spanish  forces  throughout  the  islands  promptly 
surrendered,  wherever  possible,  to  our  flag.  But  a 
new  and  embarrassing  element  had  entered  into  the 
situation.  Aguinaldo,  the  military  leader  of  the  recent 
insurrection  against  Spain,  had  been  recalled  by 
Dewey  from  his  pro-forma  exile  in  Singapore.  To  him 
the  American  commodore  gave  the  stand  of  thirty 
thousand  rifles  captured  in  the  Naval  Arsenal  at  Ca- 
vite.  Aguinaldo  states  that  the  commodore  promised 
him  the  independence  of  the  Philippines;  this  Dewey 
subsequently  denied. 

It  is  incontrovertible  that  the  Filipino  Army,  which 
quickly  gathered  under  the  old  insurrecto  leaders, 
thought  they  were  invited  to  take  over  the  sovereignty 
of  the  islands  from  Spain.  The  small  outposts  of  the 
Spanish  Army  resisted  the  Filipinos  as  best  they 
could ;  in  the  village  of  Baler,  on  the  remote  east  coast 
of  Luzon,  the  handful  of  Spaniards  fortified  them- 


PART  OF  THE  FAMOUS  ZIGZAG,  BENGUET  ROAD 


PAGSANHAN    FALLS,    LAGUNA    PROVINCE 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    33 

selves  in  the  old  church  and  put  up  a  gallant  defense 
for  many  months.  Many  Spanish  priests  were  cap- 
tured by  the  Filipinos,  and  while  a  few  were  severely 
abused  in  reprisal  for  the  wrongs  committed  by  their 
class,  the  greater  part  were  kindly  and  considerately 
treated  as  prisoners. 

The  Filipinos  took  part  in  the  assault  on  Manila 
in  August,  1898,  but  were  kept  outside  the  city  by 
agreement  of  our  general  with  the  surrendered  Span- 
iards. For  five  months  the  Americans  within  the  city 
and  the  Filipinos  drawn  up  in  a  semicircle  around  it, 
with  forces  on  both  sides  rapidly  increasing,  lay  face 
to  face.  The  Filipinos  gradually  became  convinced 
that  our  army  would  never  give  over  the  country  to 
them;  relations  became  more  and  more  strained,  and 
in  January,  1899,  the  inevitable  conflict  burst  forth. 
For  a  year  the  war  progressed  with  more  and  more 
decisive  victories  for  our  arms;  the  Filipinos  were 
gradually  pushed  northward  from  Manila,  and  finally 
scattered,  and  their  general,  Aguinaldo,  fled  to  the  re- 
mote mountains  of  the  east  coast  where  he  was  finally 
captured  by  General  Funston  through  a  daring  and 
dramatic  ruse.  At  no  time  did  the  Filipinos  have  more 
than  forty  thousand  rifles,  and  they  had  virtually  no 
artillery.  They  were  divided  in  their  own  councils  be- 
cause of  the  jealousy  of  Aguinaldo,  who  finally  put  to 
death  his  best  soldier,  General  Luna,  through  treach- 
ery. 

We  had  at  one  time  85,000  troops  engaged  in  the 
campaign,  and  the  showing  they  made  was  excellent, 
considering  the  difficult  nature  of  the  country.  Their 
achievement  is  better  appreciated  when  we  remember 
that  the  British  Army  employed  to  subdue  the  Boers 


34      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

reached  a  total  of  300,000,  the  same  figure  reached 
by  their  expeditionary  force  in  German  East  Africa, 
where  they  failed  to  subdue  Von  Lettow's  force  of 
15,000  in  a  five-years '  campaign.  It  is  only  a  pity  that 
we  were  obliged  finally  to  resort  to  "reconcentration" 
to  subdue  provinces  near  Manila,  the  very  system  we 
had  so  energetically  denounced  when  it  was  used  by 
Spain  in  Cuba.  Aguinaldo's  short-lived  republic  soon 
collapsed  under  the  pressure  of  our  military  forces. 
His  government  had  been  rather  generally  accepted 
in  theory  by  the  Filipinos  throughout  the  archipelago, 
but  it  never  had  a  chance  to  demonstrate  its  ability 
except  in  the  fortunes,  or  misfortunes,  of  war  against 
a  superior  foe. 

Much  time  is  spent,  by  those  seeking  an  excuse  to 
criticize  the  Filipino  people,  in  denouncing  Aguinaldo's 
government.  The  truth  is  that  the  insurrectionists  had 
adopted  a  liberal,  democratic  form  of  constitution 
which  never  had  any  opportunity  of  going  into  effect. 
I  have  known  a  number  of  the  men,  both  military  and 
civil,  who  surrounded  Aguinaldo  as  his  advisers  at 
that  critical  time,  and  esteem  them  as  intelligent,  well- 
educated,  and  conservative  men  of  affairs ;  even  in  the 
arena  of  an  adverse  war  Aguinaldo  would  have  pros- 
pered  better  with  his  government  had  it  not  been  for 
defects  in  his  own  character.  He  was  unwilling  to  take 
advice  from  the  very  men  he  had  selected  for  that 
purpose,  and  the  practical  existence  of  martial  law  all 
through  these  months  enabled  him  to  do  as  he  pleased. 
After  his  surrender,  the  war  collapsed,  and  a  period  of 
the  customary  guerilla  warfare  continued  until  the 
partizan  leaders  still  under  arms  were  persuaded, 
largely  by  their  own  countrymen,  to  surrender  to  the 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    35 

inevitable.  The  war  had  been  fought  on  their  side 
with  spirit  and  determination,  but  without  hatred  and 
bitterness  against  us  such  as  had  inspired  them 
against  the  Spaniards.  Reconciliation  was  not  so  dif- 
ficult in  the  circumstances,  and  gradually  came  to  pass 
under  the  wise  liberalism  of  American  policy.  Agui- 
naldo  retired  to  private  life  on  his  farm  in  Cavite, 
where  he  has  ever  since  maintained  a  dignified  and 
conciliatory  attitude  toward  the  American  Govern- 
ment ;  he  has  been  loyally  faithful  to  his  oath  of  allegi- 
ance to  the  United  States  in  every  sense  of  the  term. 
Meanwhile,  in  the  United  States  the  Philippine  ques- 
tion had  caused  the  most  profound  anxiety  and  search- 
ing of  conscience.  Anti-imperialism  was  the  chief 
issue  of  Mr.  Bryan  in  his  campaign  of  1900,  and  upon 
that  issue  he  was  defeated.  Nevertheless,  the  Anti- 
imperialist  League  contained  in  its  membership  many 
of  the  most  independent  and  respected  citizens,  espe- 
cially in  New  England,  and  the  public  conscience  was 
uneasy.  How  were  we  to  reconcile  the  holding  of  the 
Philippines  with  our  Constitution?  what  had  become  of 
our  fundamental  requirement  of  the  "  consent  of  the 
governed"?  I  have  no  doubt  that  President  McKinley 
and  his  cabinet  were  seriously  concerned  over  this, 
but  saw  no  other  way  out  of  the  embarrassing  situation 
thus  presented  than  to  hold  tightly  to  the  newly  ac- 
quired Oriental  domain,  and  do  the  best  they  could  for 
its  inhabitants.  To  be  sure,  the  first  Philippine  Com- 
mission sent  out  by  President  McKinley  was  presided 
over  by  President  Jacob  Gould  Schurman  of  Cornell, 
who  reported  in  favor  of  Philippine  independence,  and 
even  went  so  far  as  to  argue  that  the  worst  government 
of  Filipinos  by  Filipinos  was  better  than  the  best  gov- 


36      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

ernment  of  them  by  Americans.  But  there  was  the 
perplexing  international  situation  to  consider,  and 
when  reports  began  to  come  in  from  our  army  in  the 
Philippines,  the  verdict  of  the  American  officers  was 
to  the  effect  that  the  Filipinos  were  not  fit  to  govern 
themselves.  Military  men  are  seldom  inclined  to  be- 
lieve that  any  people  can  govern  themselves:  their 
whole  training  is  a  negation  of  the  principle  of  self- 
government.  So  the  government  in  Washington  de- 
cided to  hold  on,  and  to  make  the  best  of  it.  The 
Philippine  policy  of  President  McKinley  as  expressed 
in  his  pronouncement,  supposed  to  have  been  drafted 
by  Secretary  Root,  is  a  model  of  wise  statesmanship. 
He  expressed  the  hope  in  January,  1899,  that  the  com- 
missioners would  be  received  as  bearers  of  the  richest 
blessings  of  a  liberating  rather  than  a  conquering 
nation  "and  that  the  Philippines  are  ours,  not  to 
exploit  but  to  develop,  to  civilize,  to  educate,  to  train 
in  the  science  of  self-government.  This  is  the  path  of 
duty  which  we  must  follow  or  be  recreant  to  a  mighty 
trust  committed  to  us."  This  fairly  represented  the 
real  and  honest  intentions  of  all  classes  of  Americans 
at  that  time,  once  it  had  been  decided  to  hold  the 
Philippines ;  it  is  the  basis  on  which  developments  of 
policy  have  since  been  built.  Nevertheless,  the  fact 
remained  that  we  had  by  force  of  arms  overthrown 
self-government  in  the  Philippines  and  established 
there  an  autocratic  government  of  our  own.  This  has 
always  been  a  matter  of  deep  concern  to  conscientious 
and  liberal-minded  people  in  our  country,  and  was 
always  the  cause  of  the  insertion  in  Democratic  na- 
tional platforms  of  a  plank  in  favor  of  Philippine 
independence.    It  was  made  clear  that  the  exercise  of 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    37 

imperial  autocracy  in  those  far-away  islands  was  not 
only  inconsistent  with  our  own  Constitution,  but  a 
danger  of  corruption  to  our  own  ideals  and  principles ; 
in  the  words  of  Abraham  Lincoln :  ' '  This  nation  can- 
not exist  half  slave  and  half  free." 

The  president  of  the  second  Philippine  Commission, 
and  first  civil  governor,  was  the  Hon.  William  H.  Taft. 
He  arrived  on  June  3, 1900,  when  the  islands  were  still 
under  military  rule.  General  Otis  had  already  given 
the  Philippines  a  fairly  liberal  code  of  laws,  and  the 
war  was  virtually  over.  A  few  months  later  the  gov- 
ernment was  turned  over  to  Mr.  Taft  and  the  civil 
commission,  an  executive  board  entrusted  also  with 
legislative  powers.  The  commission  set  to  work  to 
restore  law  and  order,  to  liberalize  still  further  exist- 
ing laws,  to  settle  outstanding  questions  with  the  Span- 
ish, and  to  make  friends  with  the  Filipinos.  But  the 
situation  was  greatly  complicated  by  the  virtual  re- 
fusal of  the  American  military  officers  to  recognize  the 
new  civil  government.  Many  clashes  between  civil  and 
military  officials  occurred  which  would  have  been 
ludicrous  had  they  not  been  so  embarrassing  to  Mr. 
Taft  and  the  new  commission.  This  was  in  the  ' '  days 
of  the  Empire,"  when  every  white  man,  especially  in 
the  military  service,  was  a  sort  of  petty  king;  the 
islands  were  full  of  adventurous  and  rough-and-ready 
young  Americans  who  had  stayed  on  after  the  war, 
enchanted  with  the  easy  life  of  the  tropics,  or  looking 
for  a  new  means  of  livelihood.  Some  of  the  discharged 
soldiers  of  that  day,  who  had  saved  up  perhaps  six 
months'  pay,  started  in  businesses  which  have  since 
made  them  rich  men ;  others,  falling  under  the  spell  of 
the  unaccustomed  languor  of  the  tropics  and  of  the 


38      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

native  gin,  sank  down  to  the  level  of  beachcombers, 
living  upon  the  poorer  class  of  native  women,  until 
rounded  up  and  deported  by  the  authorities  as  va- 
grants. 

Life  in  Manila  was  gay  and  irresponsible ;  the  streets 
were  full  of  uniforms.  The  reaction  from  the  hard- 
ships of  campaigns  in  the  field  was  natural.  The 
Americans  had  beaten  the  Filipino,  and  meant  that 
never  for  one  second  should  he  forget  it.  Many  topical 
songs  and  verses  have  come  down  from  those  boister- 
ous days,  and  many  an  elderly  man  still  sighs  for  the 
1 '  days  of  the  Empire. ' '  Into  this  paradise  of  military 
power  and  prestige  came  Mr.  Taft  and  his  colleagues, 
talking  of  the  rights  of  the  Filipinos  in  a  community 
which  was  interested  only  in  the  rights  of  Americans. 
"He  may  be  a  brother  of  William  H.  Taft,  but  he 
ain't  no  brother  of  mine,,,  they  sang.  Resistance  to 
Mr.  Taft's  efforts  to  conciliate  the  Filipino  and  extend 
greater  civil  rights  to  him  was  encountered  not  only 
from  military  officials,  but  from  virtually  all  the  white 
population.  Finally  the  governor  lost  his  temper,  and 
in  a  speech  in  Iloilo  told  the  Americans  that  they  were 
neurotic  and  that  if  they  did  not  like  the  government 
they  could  take  the  first  boat  home.  The  sting  of  this 
remark  is  still  smarting  in  the  hearts  of  the  survivors 
of  the  days  of  the  Empire  in  the  Philippines, — there 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  statute  of  limitations  upon 
hatred ! 

Mr.  Taft's  efforts  met  with  immediate  response 
from  the  Filipinos ;  he  associated  with  himself  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Philippine  Commission  Messrs.  Trinidad 
Pardo  de  Tavera,  Benito  Legarda,  and  Jose  E.  Lu- 
zuriaga,  and  traveled  throughout  the  islands  speaking 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    39 

to  excited  and  enthusiastic  crowds  of  Filipinos.  His 
theme  was  "The  Philippines  for  the  Filipinos."  The 
new  government  was  soon  generally  accepted  and  set- 
tled down  to  the  works  of  peace.  One  of  the  first  acts 
was  the  importation  from  America  of  a  boat-load  of 
one  thousand  school-teachers  and  schoolmarms,  the 
beginning  of  a  public-school  extension  which  is  to-day 
justly  considered  one  of  America's  greatest  achieve- 
ments in  the  islands.  Many  of  these  devoted  teachers 
ventured  forth  into  lonely  and  remote  regions,  not  yet 
entirely  pacified,  and  several  paid  with  their  lives  for 
the  noble  ideals  which  inspired  them. 

One  of  Mr.  Taft's  problems  was  the  settlement  of 
the  dangerous  agrarian  question  concerning  the  friar 
lands.  It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  friars  as 
landlords  had  been  largely  responsible  for  the  insur- 
rection against  Spain.  They  held  title  to  enormous 
tracts  of  the  best  lands,  and  the  question  as  to  the 
disposition  of  these  lands  was  acute.  Mr.  Taft  went 
to  Rome  as  unofficial  ambassador  for  Mr.  Roosevelt 
in  an  effort  to  settle  this  question,  and  arranged  on 
behalf  of  the  Philippine  Government  to  purchase  these 
lands  for  $7,000,000,  for  which  amount  the  "Friar 
Land  Bonds"  of  the  Philippines  were  issued.  To  the 
success  of  his  mission  was  attributed  much  of  the 
strong  support  given  to  Mr.  Roosevelt's  candidacy  in 
1904  and  to  Mr.  Taft's  in  1908  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
voters  in  America.  The  friar  lands  have  been  gradu- 
ally sold  by  the  Government  upon  easy  instalments  to 
the  tenants;  the  pity  is  that  all  the  friars'  holdings 
were  not  bought  at  that  time.  Large  tracts  still  re- 
main in  their  hands,  and  are  to-day  a  source  of  much 
discontent  and  occasionally  a  menace  to  public  order. 


40       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Mr.  Taft  not  only  was  discharging  a  wise  public  duty, 
but  was  clever  enough  to  recognize  what  some  of  the 
people  of  the  islands  do  not  seem  to  realize,  even  to- 
day, the  great  influence  and  practical  value  to  the 
Government  of  the  support  of  a  friendly  church  in 
the  Philippines. 

Mr.  Taft  and  his  colleagues  also  adopted  for  the 
Philippines  such  parts  of  the  public  law  of  the  United 
States  as  they  thought  applicable,  and  combined  them 
with  existing  Spanish  law  to  form  the  admirable  sys- 
tem of  jurisprudence  existing  there  to-day.  One  mem- 
ber, inspired  by  the  beauty  of  the  municipal  code  of 
his  native  town  in  New  England,  tried  to  introduce 
it  in  toto  in  Manila,  even  including  the  ordinance  for 
the  prompt  removal  of  snow  from  the  sidewalks !  The 
outstanding  controversy  in  regard  to  the  legal  system 
in  the  Philippines,  among  American  observers  and  vis- 
itors, concerns  the  absence  of  the  jury  system ;  in  that 
respect  the  commissioners  left  unchanged  the  Spanish 
system,  which,  indeed,  exists  in  all  the  Latin  countries 
of  Europe,  where  the  Judge  of  First  Instance  decides 
both  the  facts  and  the  law.  While  obvious  injustices 
occasionally  occur,  it  is  not  clear  that  they  are  so  fre- 
quent as  under  the  jury  system  in  the  United  States. 
As  a  former  law  clerk  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Joseph  H. 
Choate,  then  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  American 
Bar,  I  remember  his  sarcastic  denunciation  of  the 
jury  system;  and  he  later  made  one  of  his  annual 
addresses  to  the  American  Bar  Association  upon  that 
thesis.  The  worst  that  can  be  said  against  the  Phil- 
ippine Code  in  that  respect  is  that  the  errors  in  judg- 
ment for  which  a  sole  judge  is  responsible  are  more 
likely  to  be  made  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  prisoner 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    41 

at  the  bar,  while  in  America  the  gross  injustices  of 
the  jury  are  generally  in  his  favor.  It  is  my  belief  that 
the  jury  system  will  soon  be  introduced  in  the  Philip- 
pines, although  the  Bench  and  Bar  at  present  are  in- 
clined to  oppose  such  a  proposition. 

In  1904,  Mr.  Taft  was  made  Secretary  of  War  in  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  cabinet,  in  which  position  he  was  by  law 
still  charged  with  supervision  over  Philippine  policies. 
He  continued  his  active  interest  in  the  progress  of  the 
Philippine  policy,  and  in  1907  went  to  Manila  with 
a  large  party  of  officials,  to  install  the  Philippine  As- 
sembly, an  elective  lower  house  of  the  Legislature 
newly  created  by  authority  of  Congress.  Upon 
that  occasion  he  placed  his  hand  upon  the  shoulder 
of  Sergio  Osmena,  the  first  Speaker  of  the  Assembly, 
and  said  that  hereafter  he  would  be  the  second  man 
in  the  islands.  This  ranked  the  Speaker  officially  over 
the  commanding  general,  the  admiral,  and  the  (sub- 
sequently created)  vice-governor,  and  has  been  gen- 
erally observed  ever  since,  until  the  creation  of  the 
Philippine  Senate.  President  Quezon  of  the  Senate 
still  accords  social  precedence  to  the  Speaker,  but  the 
Senate  is  jealous  of  any  assertion  of  official  priority 
on  the  part  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Politically,  Mr.  Taft  was  not  so  fortunate  as  he  was 
both  administratively  and  in  his  legislative  character 
as  president  of  the  commission.  He  strongly  believed 
that  the  Filipinos  could  be  won  over  to  complete  ac- 
quiescence in  American  domination;  that  they  would 
be  so  well  satisfied  with  the  liberal  and  generous  treat- 
ment he  accorded  them  that  all  national  longings  would 
gradually  disappear.  This  was  an  entire  misconcep- 
tion of  the  feelings  of  conquered  races  toward  the 


42      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

invader.  In  Porto  Rico,  for  example,  where  we  have 
granted  to  the  inhabitants  the  gift  of  American  citizen- 
ship— with  the  logical  implication  that  the  island  will 
one  day  be  a  State  in  our  Union — instead  of  grasping 
eagerly  the  great  advantages  this  confers  upon  them, 
the  people  are  now  clamoring  for  independence.  Iu 
the  Philippines  Mr.  Taft  founded  a  "Federalista" 
political  party  for  closer  political  relations  with  the 
United  States;  a  number  of  their  leading  men  were 
induced  to  join,  and  were  appointed  to  high  office,  to 
their  own  great  subsequent  discomfiture.  Meanwhile, 
as  soon  as  it  was  clearly  perceived  by  the  Filipinos 
that  the  right  of  assembly  and  of  free  speech  was  guar- 
anteed to  them,  the  "Nacionalista"  party  was  openly 
organized  with  great  vigor.  The  chief,  if  not  the  only 
real  aim  of  the  Nacionalistas  from  that  day  to  this 
has  been  and  is  the  independence  of  the  Philip- 
pines, and  they  have  gradually  drawn  into  the  party 
most  of  the  brains  and  talent  as  well  as  most  of  the 
voters  of  the  archipelago.  This  evidently  surprised 
and  disconcerted  Mr.  Taft  and  his  associates,  who  had 
hoped  to  perfect  a  permanent  settlement  of  the  Philip- 
pine question  without  independence. 

From  that  time  on,  as  Secretary  of  War  and  as 
President,  he  grew  colder  in  his  attitude  toward  the 
Filipinos.  No  doubt  he  thought  them  ungrateful  after 
all  that  he  had  done  for  them;  as  if  the  surrender  of 
human  liberty  were  a  matter  of  gratitude!  At  all 
events,  he  entered  the  lists  of  controversy  against 
Philippine  independence,  and  in  arguing  against  the 
feasibility  of  it  he  was  drawn  into  a  more  and  more 
critical  and  unfriendly  position  regarding  the  Filipinos 
themselves.    His  popularity  in  the  Philippines  gradu- 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    43 

ally  vanished.  Absence  from  the  islands  and  acces- 
sibility to  the  whispered  advice  of  that  numerically 
small  but  influential  section  of  our  citizens  who  desire 
to  hold  the  Philippines  indefinitely  for  the  financial 
advantage  of  the  United  States  doubtless  influenced 
his  mind.  Was  he  not  described  when  President  as  a 
large  body  entirely  surrounded  by  men  who  knew 
exactly  what  they  wanted?  Then,  too,  as  Secretary 
of  War,  he  soon  forgot  his  desperate  struggle  to  take 
over  civil  control  of  the  islands  from  the  military 
rulers  of  earlier  days,  and  in  the  agreeable  atmosphere 
of  the  War  Department  he  was  only  to  hear  contemp- 
tuous criticisms  of,  and  remarks  derogatory  to,  the 
Filipinos.  The  continuity  of  policy  of  the  military,  the 
cohesiveness  of  army  sentiment,  is  a  very  real  power, 
especially  in  the  retired  corridors  of  a  government 
department.  Some  military  officers  are  still  longing 
for  the  "days  of  the  Empire";  many  of  them  still 
refer  to  the  Philippine  Government  as  the  ' '  Civil  Gov- 
ernment," as  if  there  still  existed  out  there,  also,  a 
"military  government "  which  had  temporarily  stepped 
aside,  but  was  ready  at  any  moment  to  resume  its' 
rightful  place.  At  all  events,  Mr.  Taft,  who  had  re- 
stored civil  rights  to  the  Filipinos,  appointed  several 
of  them  to  high  office,  encouraged  their  national  senti- 
ments and  self-respect  by  his  maxim, ' '  The  Philippines 
for  the  Filipinos,"  given  them  the  first  stage  of  self- 
government  by  the  creation  of  the  Assembly,  soon 
became  known  as  the  most  prominent  opponent  of 
Philippine  independence.  He  must  have  thought  that 
in  the  islands  he  had  raised  up  a  Frankenstein  against 
himself.  When  confronted  with  the  moral  issue  as  to 
whether  the  United  States  could  justly  hold  the  Fil- 


44      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

ipino  people  in  subjection  against  their  will,  he  ex- 
pressed the  vague  idea  that  they  might  be  fit  for  in- 
dependence "in  some  generations."  The  Filipino 
people  had  for  thirteen  years  been  accustomed  to  look 
to  Mr.  Taft  as  the  source  of  all  authority  on  Philippine 
questions,  and  as  an  overwhelming  majority  of  them 
were  actively  engaged  in  formulating  the  demand  for 
independence,  it  was  plain  to  all  that  a  very  compli- 
cated and  disagreeable  situation  was  rapidly  coming 
to  a  head. 

One  of  the  most  serious  causes  of  complaint  was  the 
failure  to  carry  out  President  McKinley's  instructions 
and  repeated  subsequent  promises  of  American  repre- 
sentatives that,  wherever  possible,  the  government 
offices  should  be  filled  by  Filipinos.  As  the  attractions 
of  Philippine  life  grew  upon  the  American  officials,  so 
grew  their  willingness  to  believe  in  the  incapacity  of 
the  Filipinos  for  office.  In  1913  only  one  Chief  of 
Bureau,  Manuel  Tinio,  was  a  Filipino,  and  he  was  in 
charge  of  the  smallest  and  least  important  bureau, — 
Labor.  In  fact,  it  seemed  to  all  that  a  determined 
attempt  was  being  made  to  build  up  a  permanent 
colonial  civil  service  on  the  model  of  that  in  India.  But 
in  1913  the  Americans  in  the  Philippine  Civil  Service 
numbered  2600,  with  half  as  many  more  in  the  un- 
classified or  temporary  lists.  When  it  is  realized 
that  the  British  Indian  Civil  Service  which  directly 
or  indirectly  governs  319,000,000  people,  consists  of 
only  about  1200  officials  from  England,  the  situation 
seems  extraordinary.  Many  Americans  were  em- 
ployed in  merely  clerical  positions,  and  many  others 
in  offices  for  which  they  had  little  training  or  aptitude. 
They  were  encouraged  to  invest  in  the  Philippines 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    45 

what  money  they  had,  that  they  might  take  a  per- 
manent interest  there,  and  American  party  politics 
was  rife  among  the  American  employees  at  times 
of  national  elections  at  home.  It  seems  quite  cer- 
tain that  the  colonial  policy  of  Lord  Curzon  and 
Lord  Cromer  was  the  model  upon  which  they  were 
building.  The  American  official  did  not,  it  is  true, 
assume  the  air  of  haughty  superiority  toward  the 
"native"  which  marks  the  British  "raj"  (rajah,  i.e. 
king)  as  the  ordinary  Briton  is  known  in  India ;  such  a 
manner  does  not  come  easy  to  an  American.  In  their 
attitude  toward  the  Filipino  most  of  them  were  cour- 
teous and  considerate  enough  in  official  life,  but  there 
was  virtually  no  social  intercourse  between  the  two 
races.  At  official  receptions,  of  course,  the  Filipinos 
attended  in  force,  but  the  governor-general  who  went 
further  and  included  Filipinos  in  his  private  entertain- 
ments was  discreetly  but  pointedly  chaffed  by  his  in- 
timates. Around  the  American  supper-table  the 
matter  went  much  farther;  every  possible  story,  real 
or  fabricated,  which  stirred  up  hatred  of  or  heaped 
ridicule  upon  the  Filipino  people  was  told  there  with 
gusto,  and  all  were  probably  carried  forth  and  re- 
peated by  the  patient-looking  and  apparently  uncom- 
prehending Filipino  muchachos  (servants)  who  waited 
upon  table. 

The  exhibition  of  the  Filipino  flag,  under  which 
they  had  fought  their  war  against  us,  was  made  by 
statute  a  criminal  offense.  Patriotism  was  never  en- 
couraged in  the  schools,  nor  ideas  which  tended  to 
arouse  their  own  national  consciousness.  Everything 
which  might  help  to  make  the  pupils  understand  their 
own  race  or  think  about  the  future  of  the  country  was 


46      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

carefully  censored  and  eliminated.  Nevertheless,  the 
good  sound  stock  of  American  ideas  which  they  re- 
ceived instructed  them  inevitably  in  our  own  demo- 
cratic ideals,  and  in  our  pride  in  our  own  liberties. 
Their  teachers  could  not  well  be  surprised  that  they 
thought  of  freedom  themselves. 

It  was  fashionable  among  Americans  to  explain  that 
the  demand  for  independence  came  only  from  a  few 
agitators  or  hotheads  or  demagogues  working  for  their 
own  advantage.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  any 
struggle  for  human  rights,  the  world  over,  will  recog- 
nize the  terms. 

One  of  the  commonest  stories  of  those  days  was  of 
the  American  official's  question  to  a  simple  farmer  in 
the  country,  "Well,  you  want  independence.  What  are 
you  going  to  do  with  it?"  When  the  farmer  could  not 
give  a  concise  and  satisfactory  answer,  the  story  went 
round  that  the  Filipinos  think  independence  is  some 
sort  of  toy  that  will  be  given  them  in  a  box. 

The  United  States  Government  was  succumbing 
rapidly  to  the  accepted  standards  of  European  colonial 
administrators,  of  which  the  incapacity  of  the  "na- 
tive ' '  was  the  principal  article  of  faith,  and  the  invin- 
cible superiority  of  the  white  man  in  every  human 
affair  a  religious  tenet  to  be  maintained  at  any  cost  and 
in  any  way.  The  Filipinos  soon  saw  that  they  had 
helped  to  oust  the  Spanish  merely  to  fasten  other 
masters  upon  their  necks.  They  freely  admitted  the 
advantages  in  many  ways  of  this  change  of  masters, 
but  they  wanted  to  be  their  own  masters, — certainly 
no  ignoble  ambition,  and  one  with  which  every  Amer- 
ican should  sympathize. 

One  of  the  greatest  safety-valves  of  those  days  was 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    47 

the  presence  in  Washington,  as  one  of  the  two  dele- 
gates from  the  Philippines  in  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, of  the  Hon.  Manuel  L.  Quezon.  These  dele- 
gates have  no  vote,  but  they  are  given  a  voice  in  the 
House,  and  the  voice  of  Mr.  Quezon  was  worth  many- 
votes.  His  attractive  personality  and  personal  good 
looks,  his  popularity  with  the  membership  of  the  House, 
his  remarkable  command  of  English,  acquired  since 
his  arrival  in  Washington,  gained  him  an  immediate 
hearing.  His  brilliant  speeches  made  an  impression 
upon  Congress,  and  every  American  Representative 
who  heard  him  felt  sympathy  for  this  young  man  so 
ably  pleading  for  the  independence  of  his  race.  His 
most  famous  speech  was  that  in  which  he  thanked  the 
United  States  for  what  she  had  done  for  his  people, 
but  declared  the  unwillingness  of  the  Filipino  to  re- 
main as  "a  bird  in  a  gilded  cage. ' ' 

Mr.  Quezon's  activities  in  behalf  of  independence 
provoked  the  wrath  of  Mr.  Taft's  adherents;  the  then 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Insular  Affairs  called  him  in, 
one  day,  and  told  him  that  he  was  stirring  up  too  much 
trouble,  and  they  were  going  to  get  rid  of  him.  Mr. 
Quezon  replied  that  he  was  only  representing  the  Fili- 
pino people,  who  had,  through  their  Legislature,  sent 
him  to  Washington,  and  that  he  would  continue  his 
campaign  for  independence.  Mr.  Taft  himself,  speak- 
ing at  the  same  banquet  as  Mr.  Quezon,  lost  his  temper 
completely. 

Mr.  Taft's  four  immediate  successors  as  governor- 
general  were  constantly  in  direct  communication  with 
him  as  their  superior  executive  officer,  either  in  the 
War  Department  or  the  White  House.  They  exhibited 
the  same  energy  and  good-will  he  had  shown  in  working 


48      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

for  the  welfare  and  development  of  the  islands ;  they 
were  men  of  the  highest  caliber,  and  of  the  best  Ameri- 
can traditions.  Each  of  them  was  personally  liked  and 
respected  by  the  people  they  were  sent  to  govern. 
The  school  system  rapidly  extended  until  six  hundred 
thousand  children  were  enrolled ;  a  splendid  road  and 
bridge  system  was  initiated  and  two  thousand  miles  of 
first-class  road  constructed.  A  breakwater  was  built 
off  the  city  of  Manila,  and  the  old  moat  of  Fort  San- 
tiago was  filled  and  turned  into  a  park  and  playground. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  any  of  my  predecessors 
differed  in  any  respect  from  Mr.  Taft  in  their  views 
on  the  Philippine  question ;  only,  he  had  assigned  them, 
in  the  circumstances,  an  almost  impossible  task:  you 
cannot  create  a  national  sentiment  and  then  arrest  it 
half-way.  In  1911  and  1912,  quarrels  developed  be- 
tween the  American-dominated  commission  (upper 
house)  and  the  all-Filipino  Assembly,  resulting  in  a 
dead-lock  and  the  failure  to  pass  the  appropriation 
bill  (budget).  The  governor-general,  in  default  of 
funds  with  which  to  run  the  government,  decreed  the 
renewal  of  the  appropriations  for  the  year  before,  a 
power  given  by  Act  of  Congress  about  five  years  later. 
Irritations,  political  and  social,  began  to  appear  above 
the  surface.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  conservative  and 
responsible  Filipino  leaders,  particularly  the  Hon. 
Sergio  Osmeiia,  president  of  the  Nacionalista  party 
and  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  affairs  would  have  rapid- 
ly gone  from  bad  to  worse. 

Thus  superficially  I  have  stated  the  forces  on  two 
sides  contesting  the  Philippine  question  at  the  time 
when  Woodrow  Wilson  was  elected  President.  From 
his  speeches  and  from  the  party  platform  upon  which 


EARLIER  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION    49 

he  stood,  the  people  of  the  Philippines  expected  a  sub- 
stantial change  in  their  fortunes.  Fifty  thousand  Fili- 
pinos paraded  the  streets  of  Manila  in  a  drenching 
rain-storm  the  day  the  news  of  the  election  of  Mr. 
Wilson  was  received. 


CHAPTER   IV 

The  New  Era 

ON  October  6, 1913,  our  steamer  passed  the  fortress 
of  Corregidor  Island  and  crossed  the  waters  of 
Manila  Bay.  The  navy  had  provided  an  escort  of  four 
destroyers,  and  the  army  a  military  escort  at  the  pier. 
We  were  met  by  a  small  group  of  government  officials, 
who  conducted  us  through  immense  crowds  to  the 
Luneta,  where  a  stand  had  been  prepared  for  the 
speeches.  I  delivered  there  a  message  from  President 
Wilson  to  the  people  of  the  Philippines,  which  reads 
as  follows: 

"We  regard  ourselves  as  trustees  acting  not  for  the  advantage 
of  the  United  States,  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  the 
Philippine  Islands. 

Every  step  we  take  will  be  taken  with  a  view  to  the  ultimate 
independence  of  the  Islands  and  as  a  preparation  for  that 
independence.  And  we  hope  to  move  towards  that  end  as 
rapidly  as  the  safety  and  the  permanent  interests  of  the 
Islands  will  permit.  After  each  step  taken  experience  will 
guide  us  to  the  next. 

The  administration  will  take  one  step  at  once  and  will  give 
to  the  native  citizens  of  the  Islands  a  majority  in  the 
Appointive  Commission,  and  thus  in  the  Upper  as  well  as  in 
the  Lower  House  of  the  Legislature  a  majority  representation 
will  be  secured  to  them. 

We  do  this  in  the  confident  hope  and  expectation  that  im- 
mediate proof  will  be  given  in  the  action  of  the  Commission 
under  the  new  arrangement  of  the  political  capacity  of  those 
native  citizens  who  have  already  come  forward  to  represent 
and  to  lead  their  people  in  affairs. 

50 


THE  NEW  ERA  51 

The  significance  of  this  promise  from  the  President 
was  at  once  apparent,  and  was  received  with  enthu- 
siasm by  the  people.  The  Philippine  Commission  was 
the  upper  house  of  the  Philippine  Legislature,  and 
was  appointed  by  the  President  with  the  consent  of 
the  United  States  Senate.  It  then  consisted  of  five 
Americans  (three  with  portfolios)  and  four  Filipinos 
(one  with  portfolio).  Serious  legislation  had  become 
impossible  because  of  the  dead-lock  between  these  five 
Americans  and  the  Assembly,  or  lower  house,  com- 
posed entirely  of  elected  Filipinos.  It  is  probable  that 
the  impartial  historian  will  decide  that  in  all  the  points 
at  issue  the  reasonable  side  had  been  taken  by  the  As- 
sembly, but  the  struggle  was  deeper  than  the  mere 
questions  of  appropriations :  it  was  a  fight  for  absolute 
control  of  the  purse-strings  of  the  Government.  The 
dead-lock  was  now  to  be  broken,  and  the  Filipinos  to 
be  given  control  of  their  own  Legislature. 

The  announcement  of  this  fact  confirmed  the  worst 
fears  of  the  American  official  organization :  the  Ameri- 
cans were  no  longer  to  run  the  Philippines  as  they 
pleased,  but  the  Filipinos  were  to  have  a  voice.  Sus- 
picions as  to  some  such  radical  change  had  preceded 
me  upon  my  journey  across  the  Pacific,  although  I  had 
carefully  refrained  from  making  any  statement  what- 
ever about  Philippine  policies  or  politics  until  that 
moment  on  the  Luneta.  Before  leaving  Washington  I 
had  been  frankly  told  by  a  former  editor  of  a  Manila 
newspaper,  now  employed  by  one  of  the  greatest  bank- 
ing firms  in  Wall  Street,  that  if  I  did  not  govern  to 
suit  the  American  financial  interests  in  the  Philip- 
pines, matters  would  go  hard  with  me.    I  told  him  that 


52       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

I  had  become  accustomed  to  threats  like  that,  during 
the  tariff  revision. 

The  campaign  began  before  I  left  America;  it  was 
well  organized  and  well  managed,  and  apparently  con- 
ducted without  any  scruples ;  it  would  be  "weary,  stale, 
flat,  and  unprofitable"  to  recount  here  all  of  its  fea- 
tures. No  misrepresentation  was  too  gross  and  no 
rumor  too  wild  for  transmission  to  those  in  the  United 
States  who  knew  how  to  make  use  of  them  effectively 
upon  the  platform  and  in  the  press.  I  was  constantly 
on  the  defensive,  replying  by  cable  to  requests  for  ex- 
planations from  the  Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Garrison, 
as  to  what  was  going  on  in  the  Philippines,  especially 
during  my  first  year  of  office.  The  ' '  organization ' '  had 
determined  that  I  must  go,  the  sooner  the  better,  but 
they  counted  without  the  indomitable  will  of  President 
Wilson,  who  then  and  always,  during  my  nearly  eight 
years  of  service  in  the  islands,  permitted  nothing  to 
deflect  his  generous  and  loyal  support  of  me  as  gover- 
nor-general. 

The  attacks  and  exaggerations  during  those  first  few 
months  became  so  extreme  that  finally  the  War  Depart- 
ment grew  chary  of  listening  to  the  complaints  of  "in- 
dignant business  men."  The  chief  effect  of  the  cam- 
paign, which,  as  the  years  passed,  gradually  dwindled 
down  to  the  activities  of  a  few  recalcitrants,  was  to 
discredit  the  Philippines  as  a  field  for  American  in- 
vestment, and  to  discourage  commerce  with  the  islands. 
Capital  is  naturally  timid,  and  it  had  never  to  any 
considerable  extent  sought  the  field  in  the  Philippines, 
from  the  beginning  of  American  occupation.  The  noisy 
campaign  of  1913-15  made  capital  stand  aghast.  The 
nationals  of  European  countries  in  Oriental  ports  were 


THE  NEW  ERA  53 

delighted  with  the  chance  to  ridicule  American  at- 
tempts at  colonial  government.  Even  the  steamship 
lines  on  the  Pacific  joined  in,  and  emphatically  advised 
travelers  not  to  go  to  the  Philippines,  although  the 
islands  are  a  perfect  wonder-world  of  natural  beauty 
for  the  tourist.  "Old  Manila  residents"  spread  the 
bad  tidings  to  all  the  quarters  of  the  wind.  An  active 
lobby  was  maintained  in  the  Manila  Hotel  which  seized 
on  each  traveler  upon  his  arrival  and  filled  him  full  of 
race  prejudice  and  gloom;  strangers  were  told  that 
the  Democratic  administration  was  turning  over  the 
islands  to  a  mob  of  irresponsible,  dishonest  Filipino 
politicians  who  were  headed  toward  chaos  and  dis- 
order. 

The  after-effects  of  that  campaign  are  still  holding 
back  the  islands  to-day.  Upon  his  visit  to  Manila  in 
1919,  I  asked  Dr.  George  Vincent,  President  of  the 
Eockefeller  Foundation,  why  his  institution  did  not 
undertake  some  of  its  excellent  work  for  the  improve- 
ment of  health  conditions  in  the  Philippines ;  he  hesi- 
tated and  then  explained  that  "conditions  are  so  un- 
settled here"!  The  Foundation  is  putting  its  money 
instead  into  such  "settled"  countries  as  China  and 
Nicaragua.  Above  all,  I  was  generally  charged  by  the 
"organization"  with  ruining  American  prestige  in  the 
East.  Well  might  Mr.  Montagu,  Secretary  of  State 
for  India  in  the  British  Government,  say  of  the  word 
"prestige": 

Oh,  India,  how  much  happier  would  have  been  your  history 
if  that  word  had  been  left  out  of  the  English  vocabulary! 
But  there  you  have  Conservative  Imperialism  at  its  worst. 
.  .  .  We  do  not  hold  India  by  invoking  this  well-mouthed 
word ;  we  must  hold  it  by  just  institutions,  and  more  and  more, 
as  time  goes  on,  by  the  consent  of  the  governed. 


54       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

It  is  of  little  profit  to  recount  all  this  to-day;  the 
fight  was  the  kind  which  any  public  man  must  face  if 
he  undertakes  to  place  human  rights  above  the  claims 
of  big  business ;  or  if  he  values  the  man  above  the  dol- 
lar. One  of  the  most  frequent  charges  I  heard  was 
that  Woodrow  Wilson  was  not  a '  *  real  American  Presi- 
dent" and  that  I  was  "anti-American."  It  somewhat 
lessened  the  blow  to  learn  that  some  of  the  most  active 
in  charging  this  were  German  and  Austrian  Jews  doing 
business  in  Manila ! 

My  constant  effort  during  all  these  years  was  not  to 
1  'answer  back"  in  similar  terms,  not  to  engage  in 
personal  controversy  with  my  opponents.  Indeed,  I 
have  always  hesitated  to  participate  in  newspaper  con- 
troversies, and  never  wrote  a  magazine  article  so  long 
as  I  was  in  office.  My  purpose  now  is  not  to  revive  the 
memory  of  those  days  of  acrimony,  but  to  present  to 
those  who  may  have  the  patience  to  read  this  book,  the 
difficulties  with  which  the  Filipino  people  must  contend 
to  get  their  case  before  the  generous  American  public. 
If  any  reactionary  policy  as  to  the  Philippines  is  ever 
determined  upon  by  an  administration  in  Washington, 
the  American  public  has  little  chance  of  knowing  the 
real  facts.  The  Filipino  people  will  be  virtually  help- 
less before  the  campaign  of  misrepresentation  which 
will  be  launched  against  them.  Having,  myself,  a 
slight  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Melville  A. 
Stone,  head  of  the  Associated  Press,  I  obtained  through 
the  Secretary  of  War  the  removal  of  the  Associated 
Press  Manila  representative,  an  Englishman,  for  gross 
misrepresentation  of  the  situation  as  to  Filipinos  in 
the  auditor's  office. 

Through  it  all  I  never  failed  to  understand  the  rea- 


THE  NEW  ERA  55 

son  for  the  attitude  of  those  conducting  this  campaign, 
although  I  seldom  agreed  with  their  judgment  as  to 
the  results.  The  existing  American  political  organiza- 
tion in  the  islands  had  come  to  believe  that  the  Philip- 
pines were  theirs  to  have  and  to  hold ;  they  must  treat 
the  Filipinos  gently  and  with  justice,  but  must  never 
forget  that  they  were  only  '  *  little  brown  children"; 
American  prestige  was  built  up,  for  them,  by  the  as- 
sertion of  the  strong  arm,  which  was  backed  by  an 
army  always  at  hand. 

These  are  sentiments  natural  to  men  of  European 
descent,  and  are  accepted  as  gospel  truth  by  the  greater 
part  of  the  white  race,  which  derives  its  opinions  from 
propaganda  in  eulogy  of  the  colonial  administrations 
of  Lord  Cromer,  Lord  Curzon,  Lord  Kitchener,  and 
Lord  Milner, — a  noble  band  of  which  Kipling  is  the 
poet  laureate.  To  them  democracy  is  an  odious  neces- 
sity for  the  white  races,  but  must  never  be  applied  to 
the  " inferior"  natives  of  the  tropics.  A  paternal  jus- 
tice, tempered  with  kindness,  must  be  administered 
with  condescension  to  these  unhappy  wards,  who  do 
not  know  what  they  want,  themselves,  and  must  be 
firmly  told  what  to  want,  by  those  who  are  better 
qualified  to  think  for  them.  Cavour  said  that  any  one 
can  govern  by  martial  law,  and  he  might  have  added 
that  that  way  also  lie  honors,  preferment,  promotion, 
and  the  plaudits  of  the  crowd;  the  results  are  an- 
nounced to  cheering  audiences,  flattered  by  the  asser- 
tion of  the  physical  domination  of  their  sovereignty. 

That  splendid  body  of  officials  the  English  in  the 
Indian  Civil  Service,  have  just  experienced  a  revolu- 
tion in  all  their  accepted  ideas  and  standards  through 
the  introduction  of  reforms  of  self-government  in  Brit- 


56       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

ish  India  at  the  instance  of  the  British  Government. 
Members  of  the  civil  service  were  all,  apparently,  op- 
posed to  the  new  idea;  some  of  them  bitterly  so,  but 
they  seem  to  be  determined  to  carry  out  generously  the 
policy  of  the  home  government,  now  that  the  change 
has  been  instituted.  To  Americans  it  is  always  a 
source  of  great  surprise  and  admiration  to  find  the 
British  scattered  throughout  the  world  standing  so 
solidly  in  support  of  the  home  government,  and  so 
loyally  expressing  a  common  opinion  upon  foreign  and 
colonial  policies,  once  those  matters  have  been  settled 
at  home.  Our  system  is  infinitely  more  individualistic : 
the  American  sticks  to  his  own  opinions  through  thick 
and  thin ;  he  does  not  consider  it  necessary,  even  before 
outsiders,  to  support  his  President  if  he  happens  to 
disagree  with  him ;  he  is  violent  in  his  denunciation  of 
the  current  of  home  affairs,  even  in  mixed  groups  of 
foreigners  all  through  the  treaty  ports  of  the  Orient. 
Is  it  not  possible  that  so  much  washing  of  dirty  linen 
in  public  is  incomprehensible  to  the  rest  of  the  world? 

It  was  not  until  August  29,  1916,  when  Congress 
passed  the  Jones  Act  by  almost  unanimous  vote,  that 
the  new  Philippine  policy,  thus  confirmed  and  extended, 
was  generally  accepted  by  American  residents  in  the 
far  East.  Up  to  that  time,  for  nearly  three  years,  they 
seemed  to  consider  President  "Wilson's  Philippine 
policy  as  the  vagary  of  an  irresponsible  and  theoret- 
ical visionary,  put  into  execution  by  a  governor- 
general  who  was,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  without  sense 
of  responsibility  and  ignorant,  and  bound  to  be  over- 
whelmed sooner  or  later  by  the  results  of  his  folly. 

I  cannot,  however,  conclude  this  disquisition  without 
expressing  my  deep  gratitude  to  those  few  Americans 


THE  NEW  ERA  57 

in  the  Philippines  who  supported  me  through  all  the 
years  of  storm  and  stress ;  to  those  American  officials, 
of  whom  there  were  many,  who  did  try  their  best,  pos- 
sibly despite  their  own  opinions,  to  put  the  new  policy 
into  effect,  and  to  those  personal  friends  who  did  so 
much  to  make  happy  the  leisure  hours  of  a  political  era 
of  high  feeling. 

It  was  frequently  stated  that  I  was  filling  up  the 
offices  with  Democratic  politicians  from  the  United 
States.  I  brought  six  appointees  over  from  America 
in  all  my  years  of  office,  four  of  whom  might  perhaps 
be  called  political,  in  the  sense  that  they  were  recom- 
mended by  party  leaders ;  the  other  two  were  selected 
not  for  party  reasons,  but  because  of  special  fitness  for 
the  positions  they  occupied:  Dr.  Bernard  Herstein, 
who  had  won  the  high  esteem  of  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  in  Washington  for  his  work  as  a  tariff 
specialist,  I  appointed  Collector  of  Customs;  and 
Stephen  Bonsai,  the  well-known  author,  I  chose  as  my 
secretary.  Five  of  my  six  appointees  from  home  were 
soon  driven  from  the  Philippines  and  out  of  the  service 
by  the  hostility  and  bitterness  of  their  fellow-Ameri- 
cans in  Manila.  Even  at  the  very  end  of  my  service  a 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Philippines,  the 
Hon.  Percy  M.  Moir,  who  for  many  years  previous  to 
my  arrival  had  been  in  the  islands  as  a  judge,  and  was 
honored  by  the  general  public,  resigned  with  the  state- 
ment to  me  that  he  could  no  longer  stand  the  hatred 
and  abuse  of  his  fellow-Americans,  whose  animosity 
was  caused  by  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Democrat. 

Race  prejudice  is  one  of  the  most  poisonous  growths 
of  modern  times.  It  was  unknown  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, when  citizenship  was  conferred  upon  all  annexed 


58       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

populations ;  an  African  of  negro  descent,  indeed,  once 
ascended  the  imperial  throne  at  Kome.  Throughout 
the  middle  ages  there  are  few  evidences  of  race  preju- 
dice. Educated  men  generally  spoke  Latin  in  those 
days  and  a  man  of  position  was  at  home  in  any  country. 
With  the  rise  of  the  principle  of  nationality,  the  domi- 
nant note  of  the  last  two  hundred  years,  has  come  also 
a  tendency  on  the  part  of  each  nation  to  distrust  if  not 
dislike  the  citizens  of  all  others.  Even  to-day  race 
prejudice  drawn  upon  the  color  line  is  not  aggressive 
in  those  countries  of  Europe  which  once  formed  the 
backbone  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Outside  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  races,  it  is  hardly  known  in  other  portions  of 
the  world.  Among  our  people  it  is  probably  based 
upon  our  experiences  with  negro  slavery,  an  institution 
which  was  the  curse  of  the  United  States  until  1865, 
and  has  left  behind  the  heritage  of  hatred  and  passion. 
The  Filipinos  are  in  no  single  respect,  as  far  as  I  can 
observe,  like  the  negro  race.  Yet  the  American  living 
in  the  Philippines  and  among  other  large  Oriental 
populations  shows  that  prejudice  against  color  is  the 
most  deep-seated  of  his  racial  instincts.  It  is  a  matter 
concerning  which  no  argument  can  be  sustained  and  no 
calm  judgment  exercised.  It  is  there,  as  a  part  of 
American  racial  inheritance,  and  it  raises  a  question 
as  to  our  qualifications  for  government  or  control  of 
vast  colored  populations.  Many  Americans  in  the 
Philippines — in  fact  most  of  them — really  like  the  Fili- 
pinos individually,  since  the  latter  are  courteous,  self- 
restrained,  and  refined  in  their  social  deportment ;  they 
are  intelligent,  modest,  and  agreeable  personally. 
Sexual  crimes  are  extremely  rare  between  the  races 
and,  fortunately,  intermarriage  has  not  been  of  sufii- 


THE  NEW  ERA  59 

cient  frequence  to  complicate  the  situation.  Both 
races,  Americans  and  Filipinos,  disapprove  of  inter- 
marriage, and  interracial  unions  are  not  likely  to  be 
happy  ones,  with  the  pressure  of  both  communities  in 
opposition.  In  fact,  among  the  Filipinos  there  have 
been  fewer  marriages  with  Americans  than  with  any 
of  the  European  peoples.  The  Filipinos  contend  that 
the  Germans  have  made  the  best  husbands  of  any  of  the 
white  races,  more  faithful  and  more  considerate.  But 
let  no  one  approach  a  discussion  of  the  Philippine  prob- 
lem without  considering  this  delicate  matter,  the  race 
question,  which  is  apt  at  any  moment,  and  in  the  most 
unexpected  manner,  to  crop  up  and  baffle  the  plans  and 
policies  of  all  those  who  are  in  good  faith  wrestling 
with  public  issues. 


CHAPTER  V 

Filipinos  in  Control  of  Legislature 

IT  is  not  my  intention  to  write  here  a  history  of  the 
Philippine  Government  during  the  past  eight  years. 
As  a  participant  in  the  work  of  that  administration  I 
could  not,  in  all  probability,  write  impartially  of  it. 
The  records  are  all  there,  and  it  is  too  soon  to  pro- 
nounce final  judgment.  Those  of  us  who  have  been 
connected  with  the  administration  have  many  times 
given  public  expression  to  our  purposes  and  public 
record  to  our  explanations.  Most  of  it  is  already 
embalmed  in  the  mortuary  of  government  reports  on 
file  in  Washington  and  Manila.  Some  Filipino  his- 
torian in  the  years  to  come  will  probably,  from  the 
angle  of  vision  afforded  those  who  come  after  us,  go 
through  the  musty  records  of  the  past,  and  give  to  this 
period  a  few  chapters  in  a  history  of  the  Philippines. 
My  hope  is  that  in  this  volume  I  may  contribute 
something  of  interest  to  the  world-wide  discussion 
concerning  the  capacity  of  the  tropical  races  for  self- 
government,  as  observed  by  one  who  has  been  engaged 
in  giving  to  the  Filipinos  the  fullest  possible  oppor- 
tunity to  demonstrate  such  capacity.  If  for  this  pur- 
pose government  records  and  statistics  are  quoted, 
it  will  be  in  the  endeavor  to  show  to  what  an  extent 
the  Philippines  have  developed  politically,  economi- 
cally,   and    otherwise    materially,    under    their    own 

government. 

60 


FILIPINOS  IN  CONTROL  OF  LEGISLATURE     61 

It  is  impossible,  however,  to  avoid  frequent  refer- 
ence to  the  governor-general  and  his  relation  to  the 
general  situation ;  his  position  is  by  tradition  the  very 
nerve-center  of  Philippine  administration,  and  he  is 
given  by  law  very  full  powers  of  supervision  and  con- 
trol. It  was  one  of  my  purposes  to  assign  gradually  to 
the  proper  functionaries  the  responsibilities  which 
should  be  theirs. 

The  Governor-General  of  the  Philippines  receives  a 
salary  of  $18,000  a  year  from  the  Insular  Treasury, 
and  the  residence  known  as  Malacanan  Palace  in 
Manila  is  set  aside  for  his  use.  The  salary  had  been 
$21,000,  but  was  reduced,  at  my  insistence  and  against 
the  wishes  of  members  of  the  Legislature,  during  my 
first  weeks  of  office,  when  for  reasons  of  vitally  neces- 
sary economy  other  salaries  were  being  cut.  The 
salaries  of  the  Governor  of  Hong-Kong  and  the  Gover- 
nor-General of  Java  are  about  three  times  as  high ;  of 
the  Governor-General  of  British  India  about  four  or 
five  times  as  much.  It  costs  the  Governor-General  of 
the  Philippines  from  twice  to  four  times  his  salary  to 
live  in  Malacanan,  according  to  his  disposition  in  the 
matters  of  entertaining  and  general  style  of  living. 
No  motor-car  is  furnished  him,  and  no  servants,  but  he 
has  free  light  and  water  and  a  cottage  allowed  him  in 
the  mountains  in  Baguio,  known  as  the  Mansion  House. 
Free  music  is  provided  for  entertainments  in  Manila, 
furnished  by  the  Constabulary  Band.  Before  leaving  I 
was  instrumental  in  arranging  that  the  appropriation 
bill  should  provide  for  the  ''entertainment  of  dis- 
tinguished guests"  out  of  the  $100,000  appropriated  in 
the  General  Purpose  funds,  when  "approved  by  the 
Council  of  State."    This  should  lighten  the  financial 


62       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

burden  of  my  successor.  It  was  made  use  of  once  in 
my  last  few  months  of  office  to  the  amount  of  about 
$3000,  to  pay  for  the  extraordinary  expenditures  neces- 
sary for  entertainment  at  Malacanan  of  the  visitors 
who  were  members  of  the  Congressional  party. 

Malacanan  Palace  is  one  of  the  most  comfortable  and 
delightful  homes  in  the  tropics.  The  Spaniards  were 
the  best  of  all  the  European  races  as  builders  in  the 
hot  countries,  perhaps  because  they  learned  how  to 
build  in  their  own.  The  English  make  themselves 
miserable  in  the  tropics  by  reproducing  in  every  re- 
spect possible  the  houses  and  methods  of  life  of  their 
own  cold  climate.  Malacanan  was  originally  purchased 
by  the  Spanish  Government  about  a  century  ago  as  a 
casita  or  country  house,  and  has  been  added  to  from 
time  to  time  until  it  has  now  a  huge  floor  space  of  old 
hand-hewn  hardwood,  and  is  admirably  fitted  for  large 
entertainments.  The  balcony  projects  over  the  swiftly 
flowing  Pasig  River,  and  there  is  generally  a  pleasant 
breeze  there,  even  during  the  hottest  weather.  The 
thermometer  in  my  room  generally  stood  at  83°,  and 
seldom  went  below  76°  or  above  89°.  The  gardens 
along  the  river  are  noted  for  the  fairy-land  illumina- 
tion displayed  at  evening  entertainments.  Malacanan 
has  been  greatly  enlarged  and  modernized  in  the  last 
few  years,  and  a  beautiful  new  executive  office  build- 
ing in  the  garden  has  just  been  completed. 

In  the  disastrous  earthquake  of  1865  the  big  stone 
palace  of  the  governor-general,  on  what  is  now  Plaza 
McKinley,  was  totally  destroyed,  and  the  governor- 
general  moved  temporarily  into  Malacanan;  like  so 
much  else  that  the  Spanish  intended  as  temporary,  it 
has  become  his  permanent  residence.    When  I  settled 


FILIPINOS  IN  CONTROL  OF  LEGISLATURE      63 

in  Malacanan  I  was  the  ninety-fifth  governor-general, 
and  served  in  that  position  for  seven  and  a  half  years, 
or  longer  than  any  one  of  the  forty-four  who  had 
directly  preceded  me,  dating  back  to  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  governor-general  has  an  office  in  Mala- 
canan, but  when  he  was  also  President  of  the  Philip- 
pine Commission,  which  sat  daily  during  the  Legis- 
lative sessions,  it  was  customary  for  him  to  go  to  the 
Ayuntamiento,  or  City  Hall,  every  day  for  his  office 
work. 

It  was  frequently  charged  that  in  my  first  months  of 
office  I  would  not  consult  with  "the  Americans";  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  I  saw  all  Americans  who  wished 
to  advise  with  me, — indeed,  gave  hours  to  that  service, 
day  after  day,  year  after  year.  The  real  difficulty 
was  that  I  did  not  always  take  the  advice,  not  of  ' '  the 
Americans,"  but  of  certain  Americans  who  had  com- 
posed what  had  been  popularly  known  as  the  "kitchen 
cabinet,"  or  "polo  cabinet"  of  recent  years.  Few  of 
them  held  official  positions,  and  many  of  them  seemed 
to  me  to  be  inspired  by  private  financial  interests 
rather  than  the  public  interest.  Any  one  who  has  ever 
held  public  executive  office  will  know  how  very  great  a 
part  of  his  time  is  occupied  in  seeing  people  and  re- 
ceiving advice.  This  is  particularly  so  in  the  Philip- 
pines, where  for  ages  a  paternal  government  had  been 
conducted,  with  the  governor-general,  whether  by  law 
or  custom,  the  head  and  center  of  it  all.  Week  after 
week  my  time  was  occupied  with  receiving  complaints, 
advice,  or  requests,  often  from  the  same  people  again 
and  again.  Finally  I  came  to  feel  that  my  office  was 
not  unlike  that  of  a  medical  man :  persons  came  to  me 
only  when  in  trouble,  and  for  consultation  and  relief. 


64      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

At  the  very  beginning  I  made  of  record  the  fact 
that  I  had  come  to  govern  the  islands  in  consultation 
also  with  the  Filipinos.  I  was  thus  brought  into  im- 
mediate and  daily  contact  with  Mr.  Sergio  Osmena,  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  president  of 
the  Nacionalista  party  and  the  leading  representative 
of  the  Filipino  people.  This  remarkable  man  had 
already  been  Speaker  for  five  years,  and  still  holds 
that  office.  I  found  him  extremely  well  informed,  not 
only  about  Philippine  affairs,  but  about  American  his- 
tory and  Constitutional  law.  Wise,  astute,  and  cau- 
tious, of  an  impressive  personality,  he  was  also  pos- 
sessed of  most  remarkably  courteous  good  manners, 
which  never  failed  him.  For  the  past  thirteen  years 
he  and  Mr.  Quezon  have  been  the  dominant  personal- 
ities in  Philippine  politics.  I  have  never  heard  either 
of  them  speak  a  word  of  criticism  or  ill-will  against  the 
United  States  or  the  American  people,  and  only  very 
rarely  against  an  individual  American.  They  have 
always  had  a  faith  in  our  country  and  an  appreciation 
of  what  our  country  has  done  for  their  people  far  above 
the  petty  level  of  political  and  racial  feelings  in 
Manila. 

Our  first  duty  was  to  select  for  recommendation  to 
the  President  the  names  of  the  new  Filipino  majority 
in  the  commission  which  was  promised  by  his  message. 
Mr.  Osmena  furnished  a  list  of  a  dozen  names,  and  we 
proposed  to  submit  them  for  approval  to  the  Philip- 
pine Assembly,  so  that  all  the  elected  representatives 
of  the  people  might  have  a  share  in  the  selection,  but 
this  plan  was  vetoed  by  the  Secretary  of  War.  I  then 
consulted  Chief  Justice  Arellano,  Resident  Commis- 
sioners Quezon  and  Earnshaw,  and  Colonel  Harbord, 


FILIPINOS  IN  CONTROL  OF  LEGISLATURE      65 

Chief  of  Constabulary.  The  five  names  agreed  upon 
were  cabled  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the  com- 
missioners were  shortly  nominated  by  the  President 
and  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  as  follows:  Victorino 
Mapa  of  Iloilo  as  Secretary  of  Finance  and  Justice; 
Rafael  Palma  of  Manila,  for  several  years  already  a 
member  of  the  commission,  for  reappointment;  Vi- 
cente Ilustre  of  Batangas ;  Jaime  de  Veyra  of  Leyte ; 
and  Vicente  Singson-Encarnacion  of  Ilocos  Sur. 
Palma  and  De  Veyra  were  members  of  the  Nacion- 
alista  party,  Mapa  sympathetically  inclined  to  that 
party,  Ilustre  an  independent,  and  Singson  the  leader 
of  the  Progresista  party  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. For  nearly  three  years,  until  the  change  of 
government  under  the  Jones  Act,  we  worked. together 
through  seasons  of  political  excitement  and  turmoil 
with  perfect  harmony  and  mutual  good-will.  It  may 
serve  to  illustrate  the  types  of  older  Filipino  leaders  to 
describe  these  commissioners  here. 

Secretary  Mapa,  who  sat  for  twelve  years  upon  the 
Philippine  Supreme  Court  bench,  is  short  of  stature 
and  dignified  in  demeanor.  He  served  in  Spanish  days 
as  Alcalde  (or  Mayor)  of  the  City  of  Iloilo.  His  cour- 
tesy and  modesty  are  so  great  that  none  but  his  intimate 
friends  know  his  rare  sense  of  humor  and  fund  of 
anecdotes  and  proverbs.  Some  of  his  best  stories  are 
of  playing  tresillo  (cards)  with  Governor-General 
Weyler,  who  was  a  short  man  like  himself,  with  a  ter- 
rific military  reputation  and  menacing  gestures;  Mr. 
Mapa  incidentally  points  out  that  General  Weyler  in 
all  his  long  life  had  never  once  been  under  fire  himself. 
As  a  member  of  the  commission,  Mr.  Mapa's  services 
were  invaluable;  nobody  in  the  islands  has  a  better 


66      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

legal  mind,  and  he  was  constantly  appealed  to  by  his 
colleagues  for  his  opinion  on  all  legal  points,  never 
offering  his  advice  in  general  discussions  until  it  was 
asked.  He  was  generous  and  kindly  always,  but  in  a 
parliamentary  fight,  once  he  had  made  up  his  mind, 
he  was  absolutely  fearless,  a  veritable  little  Lion  of 
Justice.  His  face  is  like  an  engraving  of  a  French 
statesman  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  his  sense 
of  honor  and  fair  play  are  above  all  party  or  political 
considerations.  He  was  recently  made  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  to  succeed  the  late  Chief  Justice 
Cavetona  Arellano,  but  had  to  resign  his  position  be- 
fore a  year  of  incumbency,  on  account  of  ill-health. 

Rafael  Palma  is  generally  considered  the  third  man 
in  Filipino  politics.  His  somewhat  severe  and  melan- 
choly face  frequently  lights  up  with  an  unexpected  and 
sunny  smile,  as  his  sense  of  humor  is  pronounced.  He 
has  a  good  legal  mind,  rare  literary  ability,  and  a 
talent  for  public  speaking ;  and  he  speaks  in  the  choic- 
est Spanish.  He  is  modest  and  industrious,  and  a  loyal 
party  man,  upon  whom  a  large  part  of  the  burden  of 
party  management  was  placed  by  Speaker  Osmena. 
His  service  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  com- 
mission, the  Philippine  Senate,  and  on  the  Board  of 
Regents  of  the  University  of  the  Philippines  has  been 
marked  by  absolute  integrity  and  by  a  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  public  instruction.  As  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior he  handled  successfully  many  of  the  most  deli- 
cate problems  of  the  Government.  Just  and  fair,  he 
is  popular  with  Americans  and  Filipinos  alike.  Being 
a  very  poor  man,  he  has  recently  retired  from  the 
cabinet  to  enter  business,  as  he  has,  in  the  Filipino 
fashion,  a  large  and  growing  family. 


FILIPINOS  IN  CONTROL  OF  LEGISLATURE      67 

Jaime  de  Veyra  was  governor  of  the  great  province 
of  Leyte  during  the  troublesome  days  of  the  uprising 
of  the  pulajans,  or  outlaws,  about  fifteen  years  ago. 
His  literary  ability  is  marked,  and  illuminates  his  re- 
ports and  papers,  as  he  served  an  apprenticeship  as  a 
newspaper  editor.  He  has  held  office  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  the  commission  and  as  Secretary 
of  Commerce  and  Police,  and  then  as  Executive  Secre- 
tary of  the  Government.  His  charming  wife  is  a  great 
asset  to  him,  with  her  facility  for  making  and  keeping 
friends  among  the  American  Congressional  ladies, 
since  Don  Jaime  is  now  one  of  the  two  Representatives 
in  Congress  from  the  Philippines.  He  is  of  a  thick-set 
figure,  somewhat  darker  than  his  colleagues,  and  of  a 
very  serious  turn  of  mind,  rarely  smiling  or  talking 
except  when  he  has  something  to  say,  when  he  develops 
a  rather  unexpected  eloquence.  He  is  extremely  tender- 
hearted and  inclined  to  sentiment. 

Vicente  Hustre  has  dark  and  handsome  features, 
and  is  possessed  of  much  dignity  and  grace  of  manner. 
He  served  as  a  member  of  the  Revolutionary  Junta  in 
Hong-Kong  during  the  insurrection,  and  since  then  has 
practised  law  and  watched  over  his  sugar  plantations 
in  Batangas.  He  came  from  private  life  to  the  commis- 
sion, where  he  did  arduous  and  valuable  work  in  draft- 
ing the  laws  for  the  reformation  of  the  Justice  of  the 
Peace  service,  and  also  the  new  code  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Department  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu,  in 
1914.  He,  like  Mr.  Mapa  and  Mr.  Singson,  has  consid- 
erable wealth,  and  lives  in  a  luxurious  home  surrounded 
with  all  comforts  and  with  works  of  art.  Mr.  Ilustre 
was  always  something  of  an  insurrecto  in  politics,  and 
though  he  gained  a  seat  for  the  short  term  in  the  Sen- 


68      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

ate,  in  1916,  he  was  ousted  by  his  opponent  in  1918  and 
has  since  practised  law.  He  is  rather  more  suspicious 
of  the  intentions  of  the  United  States  than  are  his  col- 
leagues, and  is  aggressively  in  favor  of  the  immediate 
independence  of  his  country.  His  education  was  com- 
pleted in  Madrid  in  the  later  days  of  Spanish  domina- 
tion, and  he  has  imbibed  there  some  of  the  old-world 
cynicism  as  to  the  promises  and  agreements  of  nations. 

Vicente  Singson  is  a  tall,  slow-moving  figure  of 
the  mestizo  type.  He  is  an  able  public  speaker,  and 
has  served  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  com- 
mission, and  the  Senate.  He  is  a  Conservative  and  his 
interests  are  largely  those  of  business  and  finance. 
Humor  seldom  disturbs  his  dignity,  but  his  manners 
are  affability  and  courtesy  personified.  His  talents  are 
those  of  the  world  of  commerce,  rather  than  of  legisla- 
tive halls,  but  he  is  ready  and  able  to  advance  his 
views  and  defend  his  opinions  on  all  occasions.  His 
presence  strengthened  the  business  side  of  the  com- 
mission. Like  Mr.  Palma,  he  has  been  to  the  United 
States  twice,  and  seems  to  like  American  customs  and 
ideas. 

I  find  on  reading  over  these  descriptive  sketches  of 
my  first  Filipino  colleagues  that  I  have  stressed  the 
dignity  of  them  all ;  they  are  all  of  the  older  type  and 
generation,  and  of  them  only  Mr.  Palma  speaks  Eng- 
lish readily ;  none  have  had  an  American  public-school 
education.  Dignity  of  demeanor  is  essentially  an 
Oriental  characteristic, — dignity  with  an  impassive 
tinge.  In  the  expression  of  most  of  the  older  Filipinos 
there  is  a  trace  of  melancholy,  as  there  is  in  all  the  Fili- 
pino music  of  older  days, — the  mark  of  centuries  of 
service  as  a  subject  race.    Men  of  the  younger  genera- 


FILIPINOS' IN  CONTROL  OF  LEGISLATURE      69 

tion,  already  coming  upon  the  stage  in  business  and 
public  affairs,  look  full  of  hope,  ambition,  and  Ameri- 
can hustle.  Upon  first  acquaintance,  Americans  are 
not  aware  of  the  sense  of  fun  of  the  Filipinos;  their 
solemnity  is  an  affair  of  manner  rather  than  of  mind. 
I  remember  several  meetings  of  the  all-Filipino  Coun- 
cil of  State  in  which  the  bursts  of  laughter  must  have 
disconcerted  the  officials  on  the  other  side  of  the  swing- 
doors.  Loyal  friends,  good  companions,  dependable 
advisers — I  regret  leaving  them  all. 

In  public  affairs  I  found  them  ever  conscientious 
and  patriotic,  with  a  fine  sense  of  the  respect  owed 
the  United  States  Government,  and  a  due  consciousness 
of  obligation  to  their  own  people.  Never  was  an  anti- 
American  measure  introduced  intentionally.  They 
realized  that  the  Filipinos  were  on  trial,  and  that  they 
themselves  were  the  representatives  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen  before  the  world.  Hardly  a  possible  prob- 
lem of  government  but  came  before  the  commission  or 
the  Council  of  State  during  these  years.  I  found  them 
in  debate,  and  in  the  care  with  which  they  cast  their 
votes,  as  full  of  responsibility  and  of  intelligent  under- 
standing as  any  legislators  I  have  known  anywhere. 
Those  departments  of  government  which  they  had 
never  possessed  before,  and  which  were  therefore  new 
to  them,  were  studied  with  the  utmost  care  and  delib- 
eration. In  later  chapters  I  shall  discuss  the  develop- 
ment of  Filipino  governmental  abilities. 

Within  a  few  months  the  membership  of  the  Philip- 
pine Commission  was  completed  by  President  Wilson, 
and  there  arrived  from  the  United  States  the  new 
American  members, — Vice-Governor  Henderson  S. 
Martin,  a  progressive  Democrat  from  Kansas,  genial 


70     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

and  sunny-tempered,  with  a  decided  leaning  toward  all 
liberal  and  democratic  ideas;  Winfred  T.  Denison, 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  sensitive  and  high-minded, 
one  of  the  Progressive  Republicans  from  New  York, 
loyally  devoted  to  the  principle  of  Filipino  self-gov- 
ernment; and  Clinton  L.  Riggs  of  Baltimore,  Secre- 
tary of  Commerce  and  Police,  a  Democrat  of  the  most 
conservative  type,  whose  bias  in  favor  of  the  generally 
accepted  standards  of  colonial  government  soon  earned 
for  him  among  the  resident  Americans  the  nickname 
of  "the  White  Hope." 

General  Riggs  was  a  most  charming  social  com- 
panion, and  a  most  difficult  colleague  in  government. 
He  was,  from  the  very  beginning,  out  of  sympathy  with 
the  new  policy  in  the  Philippines,  and,  I  think,  came 
out  with  the  idea  of  replacing  me  when  my  removal 
was  accomplished  by  the  campaign  then  under  way. 
He  was  closely  in  the  confidence  of  the  Secretary  of 
War,  who  also  was  greatly  disturbed  at  the  reports 
coming  from  the  Philippines ;  and  although  Secretary 
Garrison  subsequently  became  disgusted  with  the  mis- 
information about  the  Philippines  which  was  being  dis- 
seminated through  the  United  States,  and  in  a  spirit 
of  generous  indignation  entered  into  a  sharp  contro- 
versy with  Mr.  Taft  in  the  public  press  in  defense  of 
my  administration,  I  am  sure  he  would,  himself,  say 
that  he  never  really  sympathized  with  our  radical  plans 
in  the  Philippines;  indeed,  it  will  be  remembered 
that  his  resignation  as  Secretary  of  War  was  based 
partly  upon  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  speedy  prepa- 
rations for  Philippine  independence.  General  Riggs 
stood  firmly  upon  his  interpretation  of  the  law  which 
gave  the  governor-general  only  "supervision"  of  the 


FILIPINOS  IN  CONTROL  OF  LEGISLATURE      71 

other  department  secretaries;  he  told  me  that  "super- 
vision" gave  only  an  advisory  power,  and  no  right  of 
interference  in  his  department,  which  included  the 
Philippine  Constabulary,  of  which  by  law  the  governor- 
general  was  commander-in-chief.  The  Jones  Act  of 
1916  cleared  up  this  controversy  by  giving  the  gover- 
nor-general "  supervision  and  control"  over  all  depart- 
ments of  government.  During  the  eighteen  months  of 
our  controversy,  General  Biggs  and  I,  after  the  fashion 
of  Anglo-Saxons,  managed  to  remain,  personally  and 
socially,  good  friends.  He  went  home  ill  in  the  summer 
of  1915,  and  his  resignation  was  accepted  by  the  Presi- 
dent in  December  of  that  year. 

Poor  Denison  was  the  official  who  suffered  most  from 
the  troublesome  political  storms  of  those  early  days; 
his  was  a  spontaneous,  frank,  and  sincere  nature,  and 
he  was  genuinely  inspired  with  a  desire  to  bring  self- 
government  to  the  Filipinos.  He  was  not  of  the  stern 
stuff  necessary  to  face  public  criticism  and  abuse. 
Within  his  first  few  months  he  made  a  speech  at  the 
City  Club  in  Manila  in  which  he  advocated  giving  the 
Filipinos  their  rights,  or,  as  he  phrased  it,  "give  them 
what  they  want. ' '  He  at  once  became  the  target  for  a 
veritable  bombardment  of  ridicule  and  abuse  from  the 
"organization,"  and  his  spirit  was  completely  shat- 
tered. He  left  the  Philippines  a  year  later,  in  a  most 
melancholy  frame  of  mind,  absolutely  broken  on  the 
wheel  of  the  "organization's"  criticism. 

Vice-Governor  Martin,  of  a  serene  and  well-balanced 
disposition,  rode  the  waves  successfully  and  rendered 
excellent  service  in  the  commission.  His  chief  work 
was  in  the  public  schools,  in  founding  the  Rural  Credit 
Association    system,    and   in    drafting    and    forcing 


72      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

through  the  charter  of  the  Philippine  National  Bank. 
He  resigned  in  the  autumn  of  1916,  and  I  think  has 
since  regretted  that  he  did  not  remain  to  carry  on  the 
work  he  liked  so  well.  He  was  a  valuable  and  much 
valued  pillar  of  support  in  our  Philippine  policy.  He 
was  succeeded  in  June,  1917,  by  Vice-Governor  Charles 
E.  Yeater  of  Missouri,  at  the  present  writing  acting 
Governor-General  of  the  Philippines. 

To  the  Filipinos,  the  majority  upon  the  commission 
meant  that  the  dead-lock  as  to  appropriations  and 
other  important  measures  would  be  broken  instantane- 
ously, and  that  in  the  selection  of  their  higher  officials, 
such  as  bureau  chiefs,  and  judges  of  the  First  In- 
stance, they  were  to  have  the  controlling  vote  in  the 
commission,  to  which,  by  existing  law,  such  nomina- 
tions were  sent  for  confirmation.  Long-standing 
grievances  which  they  wished  to  remove  were  now  in 
their  hands  for  settlement.  Above  all,  the  new  policy 
was  a  recognition  of  their  political  rights  and  race 
dignity,  for  which  they  showed  immediate  gratitude. 
The  morning  after  the  announcement  of  the  new  step 
forward,  "La  Vanguardia, ' '  the  leading  Filipino 
paper,  theretofore  a  very  resolute  opponent  of  Amer- 
ican policies  in  the  islands,  expressed  in  Spanish  the 
general  sentiment  editorially  under  the  heading 
"Dawn  of  the  New  Era"  as  follows: 

Magical  Effect  of  President's  Grave  and 
Dignified  Message  .  .  . 
Complete  Disappearance  of  All  Hitherto  Existing 
Prejudices  and  a  Great  Improvement  in 
Political  Atmosphere. 
Much  has  already  been  said  and  written  in  regard  to  the 
necessity  of  a  better  understanding,  of  harmony  and  coopera- 
tion, but,  hitherto,  results  have  been  always  negative  and  all 


FILIPINOS  IN  CONTROL  OP  LEGISLATURE      73 

efforts  seemed  fruitless.  Matters  went  from  bad  to  worse. 
Now,  however,  it  has  been  sufficient  for  the  chosen  represen- 
tative of  President  Wilson  to  make  a  simple  and  frank  state- 
ment of  policy,  and  the  situation  as  a  result  is  completely 
changed.  These  statements  have  been  sufficient  to  revive  in 
a  most  admirable  and  complete  manner  the  faith  of  Filipinos 
in  the  justice  of  the  American  people,  and  all  prejudices  and 
misunderstandings  that  have  grown  up  in  the  past  have  been 
immediately  wiped  away.  As  a  result,  it  can  be  said  that 
since  the  decided  views  of  the  Democratic  Administration 
have  been  announced  never  before  in  our  mutual  history  have 
respect  and  consideration  of  American  sovereignty  been  as 
firmly  rooted  in  these  islands  as  it  is  now. 

The  editor  of  the  "Vanguardia,"  Mr.  Alejandro 
Roces,  the  most  influential  and  independent  daily  pub- 
lisher in  the  islands,  maintained  the  same  attitude  un- 
swervingly during  my  whole  administration.  His  un- 
selfish patriotism  and  determined  freedom  from  any 
official  connections  lent  weight  to  his  opinions. 

Upon  the  day  after  the  delivery  of  the  first  message 
to  the  Legislature — October  16,  1913 — the  Philippine 
Assembly  gave  official  expression  to  similar  views  in  a 
resolution,  reciting  the  firm  stand  of  the  Filipino  people 
for  immediate  independence  from  the  day  of  the  insur- 
rection against  Spain  in  1896,  through  all  trials  and 
vicissitudes,  and  their  patient  confidence  that  ultimate- 
ly the  United  States  Government  would  redress  ''all 
errors  and  injustices."  The  resolution  concluded  as 
follows : 

We  believe  that,  happily,  the  experiments  of  imperialism 
have  come  to  an  end,  and  that  colonial  exploitation  has  passed 
into  history.  The  epoch  of  mistrust  has  been  closed.  ...  A 
few  days  have  sufficed  to  bring  about  a  good  understanding 
between  Americans  and  Filipinos,  which  it  had  been  impos- 
sible to  establish  during  the  thirteen  years  past.  We  are 
convinced  that  every  onward  step,  while  relieving  the  Amer- 


74       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

ican  Government  of  its  responsibilities  in  the  Islands,  will, 
as  in  the  past,  fully  demonstrate  the  present  capacity  of  the 
Filipino  people  to  establish  a  government  of  its  own  and 
guarantee  in  a  permanent  manner  the  safety  under  such 
government  of  the  life,  property  and  liberty  of  the  residents 
of  the  Islands,  national  as  well  as  foreign.  We  do  not  wish 
to  say  by  this  that  there  will  not  be  difficulties  and  embarrass- 
ments. Nor  do  we  even  expect  that  the  campaign,  open  or 
concealed,  of  the  enemies  of  the  Filipino  cause  will  cease  soon, 
but  we  feel  sure  that  through  a  conservative  use  of  the  powers 
entrusted  to  us,  the  Filipino  people  will,  with  God's  favor 
and  the  help  of  America,  emerge  triumphantly  from  the  test, 
however  difficult  it  may  be. 

A  few  days  later,  when  the  Filipino  majority  was 
appointed  to  the  commission,  the  new  commissioners 
cabled  their  thanks  to  the  President,  accepting  the 
offices  in  order  to  ' '  aid  the  work  of  laying  down  a  basis 
for  a  stable,  free  Filipino  Government."  A  joint 
meeting  of  the  Legislature  on  October  31, 1913,  resolved 
' '  that  the  principle  of  immediate  action  has  taken  the 
place  of  the  announcement  of  promises."  These  quo- 
tations have  been  given  not  only  to  show  the  response 
of  the  Filipino  mind  to  the  new  policy,  but  for  the  light 
they  cast  upon  past  history  in  the  islands.  For  a  cen- 
tury at  least  the  home  government,  first  of  Spain  and 
then  of  the  United  States,  had,  in  moments  of  liberal 
impulse,  promised  reforms  and  made  political  profes- 
sions, and  then  turned  to  other  matters  and  left  the 
field  to  the  forces  of  reaction  and  inaction. 


CHAPTER   VI 

Fujpinization 

A  Filipino  majority  on  the  commission  was  re- 
garded by  the  Americans  in  the  service  as  a 
weapon  aimed  straight  at  them.  At  one  stroke  they 
had  lost  their  power  of  complete  domination.  They 
still  held  control,  however,  of  the  executive  branches 
of  the  Government.  To  be  sure,  of  the  nine  thousand 
members  of  the  Classified  Civil  Service  in  1913,  only 
twenty-six  hundred  were  Americans,  but  the  latter  held 
all  but  half  a  dozen  of  the  higher  offices.  This  was  one 
of  the  chief  sources  of  resentment  on  the  part  of  the 
Filipino  people.  How  were  they  to  prove  their  capac- 
ity if  they  were  not  given  a  responsible  share  in  the 
administration?  There  were  in  1913  actually  more 
Americans  in  the  Civil  Service  than  in  1907  or  1908. 
The  resentment  of  the  Filipinos  over  this  state  of  af- 
fairs has  a  respectable  precedent  in  our  own  history. 
The  Declaration  of  Independence  says  of  George  the 
Third :  "He  has  erected  a  multitude  of  new  offices,  and 
sent  hither  swarms  of  officers  to  harass  our  people, 
and  eat  out  their  substance." 

Some  bureaus,  such  as  the  Customs,  were  full  of 
Americans  in  merely  clerical  positions.  What,  asked 
the  Filipinos,  had  become  of  the  instructions  of  Presi- 
dent McKinley  thirteen  years  before!  He  had  laid 
down  the  rule  to  the  second  Philippine  Commission 
"that  in  all  cases  the  municipal  officers,  who  administer 

75 


76       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  local  affairs  of  the  people,  are  to  be  selected  by 
the  people,  and  that  wherever  officers  of  more  ex- 
tended jurisdiction  are  to  be  selected  in  any  way, 
natives  of  the  islands  are  to  be  preferred,  and  if 
they  can  be  found  competent  and  willing  to  per- 
form the  duties,  they  are  to  receive  the  offices  in  prefer- 
ence to  any  others."  What,  moreover,  had  been  done 
in  the  enforcement  of  Section  6  of  the  existing  Civil 
Service  Act,  which  required  the  appointing  officer  to 
select,  where  other  qualifications  were  equal,  first, 
Filipinos ;  secondly,  honorably  discharged  persons  from 
the  American  military  or  naval  service;  thirdly,  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States?  This  had  been  one  of  the 
long-standing  issues  between  the  Filipinos  and  the  then 
administration,  this  and  the  high  salaries  paid  to  the 
more  important  officials,  a  subject  which  was  accen- 
tuated by  the  dangerous  financial  position  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. I  heard  it  recently  stated  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons  that  the  insurrection  of  1920  in 
Mesopotamia  was  directly  caused  by  the  policy  of  em- 
ploying too  many  British  officials  in  that  new  state. 

In  these  circumstances  it  was  highly  desirable  to 
gain  the  confidence  of  the  Filipino  people  by  some 
move  to  show  them  the  sincerity  of  the  new  administra- 
tion. They  were  tired  of  oft-repeated  promises,  so 
slow  in  fulfilment.  There  was  an  undercurrent  of  feel- 
ing among  them  that  the  existing  organization  would 
be  too  strong  for  us ;  while  local  American  sentiment  on 
the  matter  was  that  I  should  not  dare  to  take  any 
further  steps,  and  should  soon  be  relieved  of  office  in 
any  event.  The  Filipinos  in  responsible  positions,  such 
as  Messrs.  Osmena  and  Quezon,  were  in  a  difficult  sit- 
uation.   They  were  pledged  to  the  policy  of  Filipiniza- 


FILIPINIZATION  77 

tion,  and  yet  were  fearful  of  the  opposition  which  would 
be  aroused  in  the  United  States  with  all  the  existing 
danger  of  having  the  true  state  of  affairs  misunder- 
stood and  misrepresented  there.  Nevertheless,  we  de- 
cided to  cut  the  Gordian  knot,  though  we  understood 
perfectly  that  this  was  the  most  difficult  and  perplexing 
task  before  us.  The  administration  for  the  past  dec- 
ade had  been  carried  on  by  an  organization  of  some 
fifty  chiefs  and  assistant  chiefs  of  bureaus  and  offices, 
who  were  not  in  the  Classified  Civil  Service,  being  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor-general  and  confirmed  by  the 
commission.  The  bureau  chiefs  were  the  active  agents 
who  carried  out  the  policies  of  the  administration 
Their  power  had  increased  to  such  an  extent  in  certain 
instances  that  they  had  assumed  an  attitude  of  rivalry 
and  antagonism  toward  one  another,  if  not  toward  the 
Government  itself,  like  the  feudal  barons  of  old ;  their 
" prestige"  was  all-important,  and  they  were  generally 
inspired  with  a  disbelief  in  the  ability  of  the  Filipinos 
to  carry  on  any  important  work  of  government.  They 
stood  together  upon  that  issue,  like  the  Old  Guard  at 
Waterloo,  ready  to  die,  but  never  to  surrender.  If 
not  in  accord  with  the  policy  of  the  department  heads 
and  of  the  Legislature,  they  could  block  to  a  very  large 
extent  the  working  out  of  any  reform.  The  new  policy 
would  be  impossible  if  bureau  chiefs  were  to  perform 
political  sabotage  with  the  official  machinery.  Only 
two  of  the  chiefs  or  assistant  chiefs  of  bureaus  were 
then  Filipinos.  The  problem  of  Filipinization  of  the 
bureaus  was,  therefore,  one  of  the  first  magnitude,  and 
bound  to  cause  strife. 

The  first  step  taken  was  to  give  a  majority  of  Fili- 
pinos upon  the  Municipal  Board  of  the  City  of  Manila, 


78       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

then  chiefly  appointive;  the  mayor  is  nominated  by 
the  governor-general,  so  this  reform  was  but  following 
in  the  footsteps  of  the  Washington  administration  in 
the  appointment  of  the  new  Philippine  Commission. 
In  the  bureaus  of  the  Insular  Government,  it  was  de- 
cided to  retain  Americans  as  chiefs,  for  the  most  part, 
and  appoint  Filipinos  as  assistant  chiefs  whenever 
vacancies  occurred,  for  a  period  of  probation ;  this  was 
done  in  the  bureaus  of  Internal  Revenue,  Prisons,  Agri- 
culture, and  Health,  during  the  first  year. 

Among  the  half-dozen  resignations  I  asked  in  the 
directorships  or  assistant-directorships  of  bureaus, 
only  one  was  asked  for  political  reasons, — that  is,  in 
the  sense  of  American  politics.  The  Republican  Na- 
tional Committeeman  was  chief  of  an  important  bu- 
reau, and  I  believed  it  would  be  difficult  to  carry  out  the 
new  policy  with  him  in  that  influential  position.  The 
resignation  of  th,e  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Lands  was 
requested  because  he  had  been  sponsor  for  the  sale  of 
large  tracts  of  public  lands  to  corporations  in  contra- 
vention of  the  wishes  of  the  Filipino  people  and  the 
views  of  my  party  in  Washington.  In  his  place  I  ap- 
pointed Manuel  Tinio,  a  capable  Filipino,  then  Di- 
rector of  Labor.  The  Assistant  Director  of  the  Bureau 
of  Lands,  an  American,  at  once  resigned,  stating  that 
he  would  not  serve  under  a  Filipino. 

Insubordination  immediately  developed  in  the  Bu- 
reau of  Printing,  through  the  director  and  assistant 
director.  They  had  read  in  the  local  papers  a  state- 
ment that  salaries  were  to  be  cut,  and  wired  to  Wash- 
ington and  to  the  Typographical  Union  in  the  United 
States.  Had  they  come  to  me  I  could  have  assured 
them  that  the  Legislature  had  under  consideration  only 


FILIPINIZATION  79 

the  reduction  of  salaries  above  $3000,  and  that  their 
employees  would  not  be  affected.  Instead,  they  secret- 
ly attempted  to  array  the  great  power  of  one  of  the 
most  important  American  labor  unions  against  the  ad- 
ministration. I  therefore  accepted  their  resignations 
immediately,  and  appointed  a  subordinate  in  their 
office,  E.  E.  Gessler,  one  of  the  strongest  union  men  in 
the  service,  as  Director  of  Printing.  The  Director  of 
Printing  thus  relieved,  John  S.  Leech,  had  while  in 
Washington  caused  much  trouble  to  President  Roose- 
velt, and  since  his  transfer  to  the  Philippines  had  fre- 
quently proved  a  storm-center  in  Manila. 

The  resignation  of  the  Chief  of  Police  of  Manila 
and  of  the  prosecuting  attorney  of  the  city  were  re- 
quested for  purely  administrative  reasons;  the  As- 
sistant Chief  of  Police,  an  American,  was  promoted, 
and  Filipinos  appointed  as  prosecuting  attorney  and 
city  attorney ;  two  of  the  bureau  chiefs,  F.  W.  Taylor, 
Director  of  Agriculture,  and  Mortimer  L.  Stewart, 
Director  of  Prisons,  soon  voluntarily  resigned,  much 
against  my  wishes,  the  former  to  return  to  the  United 
States  and  the  latter  to  become  editor  of  a  local  news- 
paper. Judge  Crossfield  voluntarily  resigned  from 
the  Court  of  First  Instance,  to  my  great  regret,  in  or- 
der to  enter  private  practice.  Other  changes  were 
chiefly  promotions  in  the  service.  Solicitor-General 
George  R.  Harvey  was  appointed  to  the  bench,  and 
Rafael  Corpus,  a  Filipino,  made  Solicitor-General.  A 
vacancy  occurring  in  the  position  of  Executive  Secre- 
tary of  the  Government,  Attorney-General  Ignacio 
Villamor,  a  Filipino,  was  appointed  to  that  important 
position,  virtually  the  head  of  the  bureau  chiefs,  and 
Judge  Ramon  Avancefia  of  the  Court  of  First  Instance 


80       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

was  made  Attorney-General.  The  Deputy  Collector  of 
Internal  Eevenue,  an  American,  whose  usefulness  was 
somewhat  impaired  by  superannuation,  was  displaced 
by  the  appointment  of  General  Venancio  Concepcion, 
a  Filipino. 

These,  then,  were  the  principal  steps  in  Filipiniza- 
tion  in  the  early  months  of  the  administration.  In  only 
five  cases  in  the  insular  service  and  four  cases  in  the 
service  of  the  City  of  Manila  were  resignations  forced 
upon  officers  of  the  Government.  Not  a  very  radical 
move,  one  might  think,  but  sufficient  to  arouse  a  whirl- 
wind of  criticism  on  the  part  of  the  local  American 
political  junta.  The  papers  in  the  United  States  were 
filled  with  charges  that  I  was  destroying  the  Govern- 
ment in  the  Philippines,  and  even  that  I  was  giving  all 
official  positions  to  " deserving  Democrats,"  a  charge 
which  was  soon  dropped,  however,  for  entire  lack  of 
foundation, — and  this  despite  the  enormous  mass  of 
requests  for  appointments  from  my  many  personal 
acquaintances  in  Congress.  Disorganization  of  the 
Civil  Service  and  ''wholesale  removals"  therefrom 
were  alleged.  In  answer  I  quote  from  a  statement  of 
November  13,  1913,  by  Dr.  Bolivar  L.  Falconer,  who 
soon  thereafter  left  the  post  of  Philippine  Director  of 
Civil  Service  for  serious  reasons  of  health,  and  is  now 
Secretary  of  the  United  States  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sion for  New  England.  He  reported:  "You  have  not 
removed  any  American  from  the  classified  Civil  Serv- 
ice. Unquestionably  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Civil 
Service  Act  and  Rules  have  been  strictly  observed 
during  the  period  October  6,  1913,  to  date. ' ' 

There  had,  in  the  past,  been  little  permanency  in  the 
American  personnel  of  the  Philippine  Civil  Service; 


FILIPINIZATTON  81 

in  the  ten  preceding  years  an  average  of  646  Ameri- 
cans had  each  year  left  the  Classified  Civil  Service, 
for  voluntary  or  involuntary  reasons,  some  22  per  cent, 
of  the  total.  For  the  period  of  a  year  from  the  date  of 
my  arrival,  the  number  was  716,  but  their  places  were 
filled  by  Filipinos,  not  by  Americans  brought  over  for 
the  purpose. 

Comparatively  few  of  the  Americans,  from  the 
very  beginning,  had  been  trained  for  the  service. 
Many  of  them  were  ex-officers  or  soldiers  of  the  volun- 
teer army  of  invasion  of  the  Philippines ;  many  others, 
young  men  lured  to  the  tropics  by  the  hope  of  adven- 
ture or  of  making  a  career  there.  Many  of  them  had 
developed  into  useful  and  unselfish  public  servants; 
some  of  them  were  men  of  truly  remarkable  ability; 
others  had  merely  "hung  on"  in  clerical  positions. 
The  truth  is  that  the  Americans  in  the  Philippine 
service  have  always  been  a  shifting  body  of  restless, 
ambitious,  and  adventurous  young  men. 

The  rapid  progress  of  Filipinization,  however,  led 
to  genuine  alarm  among  American  officials  and  em- 
ployees. To  some  of  them  it  really  seemed  as  if  the 
immediate  end  of  the  official  life  of  them  all  was  at 
hand,  especially  upon  reading  President  Wilson's  ref- 
erence to  the  Philippine  situation  in  his  Message  to 
Congress  of  December  2,  1913,  in  which  he  said,  refer- 
ring to  his  creation  of  a  Filipino  majority  on  the  com- 
mission : 

I  believe  that  in  this  way  we  shall  make  proof  of  their 
capacity  in  counsel  and  their  sense  of  responsibility  in  the 
exercise  of  political  power,  and  that  the  success  of  this  step 
will  be  sure  to  clear  our  view  for  the  steps  which  are  to  follow. 
Step  by  step  we  should  extend  and  perfect  the  system  of  self- 


82       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

government  in  the  Islands,  making  test  of  them  and  modifying 
them  as  experience  discloses  their  successes  and  their  failures ; 
that  we  should  more  and  more  put  under  the  control  of  the 
native  citizens  of  the  Archipelago  the  essential  instruments 
of  their  life,  their  local  instrumentalities  of  government,  their 
schools,  all  the  common  interests  of  the  communities,  and  so 
by  counsel  and  experience  set  up  a  government  which  all  the 
word  will  see  to  be  suitable  to  a  people  whose  affairs  are 
under  their  own  control  at  last.  I  hope  and  believe  that 
we  are  beginning  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the  Filipino  peoples. 
By  their  counsel  and  experience  rather  than  by  our  own  we 
shall  learn  how  best  to  serve  them  and  how  soon  it  will  be 
possible  and  wise  to  withdraw  our  supervision.  Let  us  once 
find  the  path  and  set  out  with  firm  and  confident  tread  upon 
it  and  we  shall  not  wander  from  it  or  linger  upon  it. 

The  nervousness  of  Americans  in  the  service  in- 
creased from  week  to  week  for  the  first  few  months ;  the 
excitement  among  them  was  continually  fed  by  the 
skilful  efforts  of  opponents  of  the  new  policy,  in  the 
press  and  on  the  platform.  Secretary  Garrison,  on 
July  22,  1914,  felt  it  necessary  to  answer  one  of  the 
many  statements  put  forth  by  the  imperialists.  He 
said : 

In  some  papers  statements  were  made  that  as  many  as 
500  Spanish-American  War  veterans  had  been  discharged 
by  the  new  administration  in  the  Philippines.  This  whole 
statement  is  so  wide  of  the  truth  that  I  desire  to  state  the 
facts. 

He  then  pointed  out  that  during  the  first  four  months 
of  the  new  administration,  instead  of  five  hundred, 
there  had  been  dropped,  of  ex-soldiers  or  ex-sailors, 

...  a  total  of  22,  not  half  of  whom  were  Spanish  War  vet- 
erans. Of  this  number,  four  have  been  transferred  to  the 
United  States  Civil  Service  in  the  Islands,  and  six  were  trans- 
ferred to  the  United  States  Civil  Service  at  home.     This  total 


FILIPINIZATION  83 

of  ten  who  were  transferred  to  the  civil  service  included  every 
man  on  the  list  who  applied  for  transfer. 

Other  rumors  which  were  widely  circulated  by  the 
press  at  this  time  were  as  far  removed  from  the  facts 
as  the  foregoing.  Reports  of  business  depression  and 
of  the  abandonment  of  the  annual  Manila  carnival  were 
spread  broadcast,  but  the  carnival  that  year  was  a  rec- 
ord-breaker ;  and  as  the  Philippines  soon  entered  upon 
a  period  of  unprecedented  prosperity,  another  weapon 
had  to  be  discarded. 

Next,  rumors  of  destitution  among  Americans  as  a 
result  of  the  policy  of  Filipinization  began  to  appear 
in  the  press.  Upon  investigation,  it  was  reported  by 
the  Chief  of  Police,  Colonel  George  Seaver,  that  there 
were  fewer  destitute  Americans  in  Manila  than  at  any 
previous  time  in  American  occupation,  and  that  no 
American  was  in  want.  Americans  "out  of  a  job" 
were  mostly  discharged  employees  of  the  Quartermas- 
ter's Department  of  the  United  States  Army,  and  not 
of  the  Insular  Government.  Although  a  number  of 
Americans  during  these  months  left  the  service  to  enter 
private  business,  it  was  for  the  most  part  greatly  to 
their  own  ultimate  pecuniary  advantage.  Those  who 
failed  did  so  principally  because  they  were  unfitted 
for  a  life  of  work  in  the  tropics.  An  example  of  this 
was  the  fate  of  the  Agricultural  Colony  at  Momungan 
in  Mindanao,  founded  in  1914  by  government  subsidy 
as  a  method  of  employment  for  deserving  cases  of  the 
humbler  class  of  Americans  out  of  work,  mostly  those 
with  Filipino  wives  and  families.  The  location  selected 
was  excellent,  the  soil  was  good,  access  to  markets  was 
provided,  and  the  altitude  of  eleven  hundred  feet  in- 


84       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

sured  a  reasonably  good  climate  for  outdoor  labor.  At 
the  end  of  three  years  all  the  Americans  had  left  and 
Filipinos  were  settled  in  their  places. 

One  reason  for  the  exodus  of  Americans  from  gov- 
ernment service  into  private  business  was  the  prosper- 
ity in  commercial  circles  during  the  years  1915-19 ;  an- 
other, no  doubt,  was  the  new  regulation  put  into  effect 
in  December,  1913,  absolutely  prohibiting  government 
officials  and  employees  from  engaging  in  private  busi- 
ness enterprises.  This  well-established  rule  of  the 
British  colonial  service  had  not  been  in  effect  in  the 
Philippines,  and  in  several  instances  its  omission  had 
led  to  scandal.  In  many  others  private  interests  had 
at  the  very  least  distracted  the  attention  of  the  official 
from  his  public  duties.  When  faced  with  a  choice  a 
number  of  the  office-holders  elected  to  keep  their  busi- 
ness and  retire  from  the  public  service.  They  have  in 
general  made  a  genuine  success  in  business,  and  are 
now  thankful  for  the  step  then  taken. 

All  Americans  who  left  the  insular  service  with  a 
good  record  were  entitled  to  certain  payments  by  way 
of  accrued  leave  or  otherwise.  In  February  of  1916 
the  civil  retirement  act  known  as  the  Osmefia  Law  was 
adopted,  by  the  terms  of  which  those  who  applied  be- 
fore a  certain  date  (since  extended  from  year  to  year) 
became  entitled  to  a  bonus  of  one  year's  salary  for  ten 
years  of  service,  in  addition  to  their  accrued  leave; 
those  who  had  served  less  than  ten  years  but  more  than 
six  years  were  entitled  to  a  proportionate  amount. 
During  the  five  years  from  1916  to  1920  (inclusive), 
913  Americans  availed  themselves  of  this  privilege, 
receiving  Pesos  3,474,923  in  gratuities,  and  212  Fili- 
pinos receiving  Pesos  261,010. 


FILIPINIZATION  85 

The  echoes  of  the  vigorous  local  fight  against  Fili- 
pinization  resounded  down  through  the  succeeding 
seven  years,  and  have  colored  much  of  the  "informa- 
tion" given  the  American  public  during  this  period. 
The  policy  was  not  accepted  by  the  local  Americans 
generally  until  the  passage  by  almost  unanimous  vote  of 
Congress  of  the  Jones  Act  of  August  29,  1916,  con- 
firming the  state  of  progress  in  Filipinization  and  ad- 
vancing it  a  step  further.  Even  after  this  many  "old- 
timers"  in  Manila  kept  up  the  fight,  more  or  less  sub 
rosa,  though  the  American  business  houses  generally 
adopted  this  policy  in  their  own  office  forces. 

After  the  first  few  months,  the  process  of  trans- 
ferring the  offices  to  the  Filipinos  was  accomplished 
without  any  convulsive  effort,  effected  naturally  by  the 
simple  means  of  filling  the  offices  as  they  became  vacant 
through  natural  routine  causes,  by  nomination,  gen- 
erally by  promotion,  of  Filipinos.  This  process  was 
greatly  accelerated  when  the  United  States  entered 
the  war  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  splendid  Ameri- 
cans then  left  in  the  service  hastened  to  join  the  United 
States  Army.  During  these  five  years  the  Govern- 
ment was  gradually  transformed  from  one  of  Ameri- 
cans aided  by  Filipinos,  to  one  of  Filipinos  assisted  by 
Americans.  The  act  of  transfer  was  sealed,  signed, 
and  delivered  by  the  passage  by  the  United  States  Con- 
gress of  the  Jones  Law. 

To  the  hundreds  of  Americans  who  accepted  the 
changes  and  stayed  in  the  government  service,  promo- 
tion was  rapid,  and  was  made  without  any  reference 
whatever  to  their  home  political  affiliations;  in  fact, 
far  more  Kepublicans  than  Democrats  held  office  and 
were  promoted  to  higher  posts  under  my  administra- 


86      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

tion, — owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  fact  that  the  overwhelm- 
ing majority  of  Americans  in  the  Philippines,  both  in 
and  out  of  the  public  service,  are  members  of  the  Re- 
publican party. 

By  1921,  with  the  exception  of  the  bureaus  of  Edu- 
cation, the  Mint,  Prisons,  Forestry,  Science,  Weather, 
the  Quarantine  service,  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
and  the  Metropolitan  Water  District,  the  other  thirty 
bureaus  and  offices  of  the  Government  had  Filipinos 
either  regularly  appointed  as  chiefs  or  acting  as  such, 
and  in  virtually  all  cases  Filipinos  were  assistant 
chiefs,  in  training  for  future  greater  responsibilities. 
No  disposition  was  shown  at  any  time  by  the  Filipinos 
to  desire  offices  of  a  technical  nature,  such  as  those 
enumerated  above,  for  which  they  had  no  men  of  suffi- 
cient experience  or  training.  It  seems  probable  that 
in  the  event  of  independence  they  will  make  an  effort 
to  secure  the  services  of  American  advisers  or  di- 
rectors for  bureaus  of  a  scientific  or  technical  nature, 
after  the  manner  of  Japan  during  the  first  thirty  years 
of  her  entry  into  modern  forms  of  government. 

In  the  University  of  the  Philippines,  for  example, 
after  Don  Ignacio  Villamor  was  appointed  from  the 
presidency  to  the  Supreme  Court  bench,  a  great  effort 
was  made  to  secure  a  capable  American  to  succeed 
him;  Jacob  Gould  Schurman  and  Professor  John 
Dewey  of  Columbia  were  among  those  approached  for 
the  purpose ;  finally,  Dr.  Guy  Benton  was  selected.  In 
the  Philippine  National  Bank,  the  first  two  presidents 
were  Americans,  the  next  a  Filipino,  and  now  an  Amer- 
ican is  again  in  charge.  In  tfye  Bureau  of  Science,  no 
Filipino  has  as  yet  endeavored  to  secure  appointment 
as  assistant  chief,  and  in  the  Weather  Bureau  a  Span- 


FILIPINIZATION  87 

iard  remains  as  chief  and  another  has  just  been  ap- 
pointed assistant.  As  will  be  noted  presently,  Ameri- 
cans were  appointed  managers  of  the  two  largest 
government-ownership  enterprises,  the  Manila  Rail- 
road Company  and  the  National  Coal  Company. 

Regarding  the  policy  of  Filipinization  announced  by 
our  Presidents  from  McKinley  to  Wilson,  and  of  the 
specific  provisions  of  the  Jones  Act,  it  will  be  seen  that 
while  Filipinos  have  by  now  come  to  occupy  most  of 
the  posts  of  tactical  or  administrative  power,  they  have 
shown  prudence  in  approaching  the  scientific  or  tech- 
nical branches  of  office-holding,  and  they  manifest  a 
genuine  appreciation  of  the  services  of  those  Ameri- 
cans who  have  continued  to  work  for  their  welfare  and 
the  development  of  their  country. 

It  was  customary  for  enthusiastic  Americans  under 
prior  regimes  to  claim  for  the  United  States  all  the 
credit  for  the  achievements  of  earlier  years ;  no  men- 
tion was  made  of  the  eagerness  in  cooperation  of  the 
great  numbers  of  Filipinos  in  subordinate  positions 
and  in  the  provincial  and  municipal  service.  So,  in  the 
later  years  of  trial  under  the  new  form  of  government 
granted  by  the  Jones  Act,  it  has  been  the  custom  for 
patriotic  Filipinos  to  claim  for  their  own  people  all 
the  substantial  accomplishments  of  the  new  adminis- 
tration. This  was  natural  enough  in  view  of  the  situa- 
tion ;  they  had  been  by  American  policies  deliberately 
put  on  trial  as  to  their  capacity.  The  fact  is,  how- 
ever, that  part  of  the  credit  was  due  to  Americans  who 
so  wisely  and  devotedly  served  the  new  government. 
If  mistakes  have  been  made,  and  mistakes  there  have 
been,  here  as  elsewhere,  criticism  therefore  should  be 
impartially  distributed. 


88      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

It  is  customary  to  attribute  to  Filipinization  an  im- 
pairment of  efficiency  of  administration;  it  would  be 
only  just  to  say  that  in  many  respects  efficiency  had 
been  gained,  in  that  the  new  government  had  the  sup- 
port and  cooperation  of  the  people  to  a  marked  degree, 
thus  making  much  easier  the  task  of  administration. 
The  distribution  of  executive  power  and  the  exercise 
of  more  genuine  authority  by  many  officials,  the  grad- 
ual withdrawal  of  the  central  Government  from  minute 
inspection  and  direction  of  minor  functions — in  other 
words,  the  extension  of  self-government  and  the 
spread  of  democracy — may  in  themselves  have  im- 
paired somewhat  the  efficiency  of  administration.  If 
so,  that  disadvantage  is  more  than  offset  by  the  gain 
in  contentment  of  the  people,  the  growth  of  respect 
and  friendship  for  the  United  States,  and  the  valuable 
lessons  in  self-government  secured  by  the  Filipinos. 

In  a  later  chapter,  more  extended  reference  will  be 
made  to  the  American  policy  of  Filipinization,  and  the 
profound  effect  it  has  had  upon  the  relations  of  the 
Filipinos  to  our  country,  as  well  as  upon  the  colonial 
policy  of  various  European  governments. 

At  the  present  time,  with  the  change  of  administra- 
tion in  the  United  States,  and  consequently  in  the 
Philippines,  a  great  discussion  is  under  way  as  to 
whether  the  Filipinos  have  succeeded  in  their  new 
responsibilities;  it  is  difficult  for.  political  partizans 
upon  either  side  to  state  the  case  impartially;  to  pass 
a  fair  judgment  upon  the  situation  requires  freedom 
from  political  bias  and  from  race  prejudice.  With  that 
freedom,  an  impartial  observer  will,  it  is  certain,  be 
struck  with  the  real  success  attained  by  many  if  not 


FILIPINIZATION  89 

most  of  the  Filipino  officials  charged  with  heavy  re- 
sponsibility in  an  age  of  world-wide  disturbance. 

It  is  not  unusual,  in  our  own  country,  for  a  certain 
type  of  campaign  orators  to  claim  for  the  party  in 
power  all  credit  for  the  sunshine  and  the  rains,  for  the 
good  crops  and  the  prosperity  of  the  people.  It  would 
be  difficult  for  a  scientific  observer  to  state  in  any 
given  case  how  much  the  well-being  of  the  people  of 
any  country  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  activities  and 
policies  of  government,  and  how  much  to  the  people 
themselves  and  to  extraneous  influences.  It  would 
perhaps  be  invidious  to  claim  for  the  Filipinos  the 
credit  for  the  unprecedented  prosperity  of  the  islands 
during  the  years  1917-19;  it  would  be  equally  unjust 
to  blame  them  for  the  recession  of  prosperity  in  1920- 
21.  It  can,  however,  be  positively  stated  thatihe  wave 
of  general  satisfaction  with  their  government  and 
with  the  United  States  made  it  much  easier  for  the 
Filipinos  to  meet  and  sustain  the  changes  of  prosperity 
and  depression.  Of  the  great  material  advantage  to 
the  United  States  of  having  during  the  war  a  loyal  and 
contented  population  in  the  Philippines,  there  can 
be  no  doubt. 

As  to  what  concrete  achievements  are  to  be  credited 
to  the  Filipino  officials,  both  in  the  Legislature  and 
in  administrative  branches,  during  these  past  eight 
years,  in  which  they  have  increasingly  taken  charge  of 
the  government,  more  detailed  analysis  will  presently 
be  made.  This  chapter  might  best  be  concluded  with  a 
brief  statement  of  the  progress  in  certain  lines  from 
1913  to  1921.  It  matters  less  what  particular  official, 
American  or  Filipino,  is  to  be  credited  with  a  specific 
accomplishment  than  it  does  to  note  the  spirit  of  the 


90       MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

whole  governmental  body,  admittedly  under  Filipino 
control,  both  as  to  appropriations  and  as  to  policies 
during  this  period.  Within  these  eight  years  the  mile- 
age of  first-class  roads  more  than  doubled,  increasing 
from  2233  kilometers  to  4698  kilometers;  1620  per- 
manent (concrete  or  steel)  bridges  were  constructed; 
725  permanent  government  buildings  were  built,  in- 
cluding schools,  public  markets,  hospitals,  provincial 
capitols,  and  large  and  beautiful  edifices  for  the  uni- 
versity and  the  Insular  Government ;  a  nework  of  wire- 
less stations  was  erected  throughout  the  provinces;  a 
vast  program  of  improvements  in  port  works  was 
launched,  and  a  bond  issue  of  ten  million  pesos  was 
sold  in  the  United  States  for  harbor  improvement  in 
Manila  alone ;  irrigation  works  estimated  to  cost  about 
ten  million  pesos,  and  designed  to  benefit  150,000 
acres  of  land  in  sixteen  different  localities,  were  in- 
itiated; 949  artesian  wells  in  the  different  provinces, 
an  average  of  one  to  each  municipality,  were  drilled 
at  a  total  cost  of  nearly  two  and  one  half  million 
pesos,  and  55  new  waterworks  systems  were  installed 
with  36  more  under  active  construction,  to  cost  more 
than  three  million  pesos.  The  artesian  wells  and  new 
waterworks  are  providing  excellent  water  for  approxi- 
mately one  and  one  half  million  persons  who  had 
always  previously  been  supplied  with  more  or  less 
contaminated  surface  water. 

The  progress  in  agriculture,  of  which  fuller  men- 
tion will  presently  be  made,  was  remarkable;  the 
point  of  interest  here  is  that  the  placing  of  Filipinos 
in  control  of  the  agricultural  departments  greatly  en- 
larged the  power  of  the  Government  to  influence  the 
people  to  increased  production.    Of  rice  alone  625,000 


FILIPINIZATION  91 

acres  more  were  planted  during  these  eight  years ;  528 
rural-credit  societies  were  established,  and  cooperation 
in  agriculture,  a  new  spirit  among  the  farmers,  en- 
couraged and  explained.  In  education  the  program 
was  enlarged  by  appropriations  which  were  increased 
from  Pesos  7,600,000  in  1913  to  Pesos  18,000,000  in 
1920,  thus  allowing  300,000  more  children  to  enter  the 
public  schools ;  taxation  was  revised  and  increased,  and 
the  government  revenue,  which  in  1913  had  been  only 
Pesos  22,000,000,  rose  to  Pesos  80,000,000  in  1919; 
there  are  twelve  banking  institution  in  the  islands  now, 
instead  of  only  six,  and  the  money  in  circulation  has 
risen  from  Pesos  50,000,000  in  1914  to  three  times  that 
figure.  To  conclude  this  list,  last  but  not  least  must 
be  mentioned  the  legislation  and  administration  during 
these  years  which  established  friendship  and  mutual 
understanding  between  the  Christian  Filipinos  and 
their  non-Christian  kinsmen,  a  movement  carried  out 
with  the  same  spirit  of  altruism  as  that  which  had 
guided  their  American  predecessors.  This  brief  and 
partial  summary  constitutes  a  record  of  which  no  peo- 
ple need  be  ashamed. 


CHAPTER  Vn 

The  Moeos 

WITHIN  recent  years  in  the  United  States,  the 
Moros  have  monopolized  ninety-five  per  cent, 
of  the  discussion  of  the  Philippine  problem,  although 
constituting  but  four  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  the 
Philippines.  At  the  census  of  1918  there  were  358,968 
Mohammedans  (Moros)  in  the  islands,  while  in  the 
same  Department  of  the  Philippines  there  lived  159,- 
132  Christians  and  205,555  pagans.  About  nine  mil- 
lion Christians  inhabited  the  islands  to  the  north.  I 
was  obliged  to  make  an  important  decision  in  the  Moro 
problem  in  the  first  two  months  after  my  arrival  in 
Manila. 

The  fame  of  the  Moros  was  wide-spread  through  the 
American  army  officers,  who  had  fought  them  in  many 
a  tight  corner  and  had  effected  the  conquest  over 
them  which  Spain  had  for  three  centuries  sought  in 
vain.  An  amusing  picture  of  Moro  life  was  given  to 
the  American  public  at  home  by  George  Ade's  operetta 
"The  Sultan  of  Sum."  The  personality  of  the  Moro 
is  picturesque ;  his  history  is  stained  with  blood. 

The  Moro  is  of  the  same  racial  stock  as  the  Christian 
Filipino, — of  a  later  migration,  perhaps,  but  a  blood 
brother,  all  the  same.  The  chief  difference  is  that 
he  is  a  Mohammedan,  while  ninety-two  per  cent,  of  the 
Filipinos  are  Christians.  The  Moro  Province,  as  con- 
stituted in  1913,  contained  most  of  the  great  islands 

92 


THE  MOROS  93 

of  Mindanao,  nearly  as  large  as  Luzon,  and  the  Suhi 
Archipelago,  stretching  right  across  to  the  shores  of 
Borneo.  This  region,  potentially  the  richest  part  of 
the  Philippine  Islands,  is  very  sparsely  settled,  and 
almost  undeveloped,  owing  to  the  intractable  nature 
of  the  Moros,  and  their  peculiar  history. 

At  intervals  during  nearly  three  hundred  years  the 
Spanish  had  sent  expeditions  against  the  Moros,  and 
succeeded  only  in  maintaining  a  few  garrisons  on  the 
coast.  The  old  walled  city  of  Jolo  (Sulu)  looks  like  a 
scene  from  an  opera,  but  death  awaited  the  luckless 
outsider  who  ventured  beyond  its  walls,  until  Wood  and 
Pershing  broke  the  power  of  the  Sulu  Moros. 

Instead  of  overcoming  the  Moros,  the  Spaniards, 
who  gave  them  that  name  in  remembrance  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan Moors  with  whom  they  had  for  centuries 
contended  in  the  home  peninsula,  only  made  a  bad  situ- 
ation worse.    For  their  own  purposes  and  protection, 
they  had  completely  disarmed  the  Christian  Filipinos, 
and  left  them  defenseless  against  the  sea-pirates  of 
the  southern  islands.    Again  and  again  the  Moros  sal- 
lied forth  in  small,  swift-sailing  vessels,  in  bands  of 
two  or  three  hundred  well-armed  warriors,  and  raided 
the  coast  villages  to  the  north  for  plunder  and  for 
slaves.     The  Spaniards  were  utterly  unable  to  cope 
with  them.    Their  raids  were  to  a  great  extent  stopped 
by  Dutch  and  English  gunboats  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, and  finally  the  United  States,  in  the  twentieth 
century,  broke  their  military  power.    As  late  as  1870 
Moro  raids  were  suffered  in  the  Straits  of  San  Ber- 
nardino, at  the  southern  end  of  Luzon.    All  along  the 
shores  of  the  Philippines  stood  little  stone  watch- 
towers  and  the  cry  "Hay  Moros  en  la  costal' "  caused 


94      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

a  panic  in  the  near-by  towns  and  a  hurried  flight  to 
the  mountains.  Constant  intermarriage  with  the 
women  raided  from  the  northern  islands  kept  alive  the 
kinship  with  the  Filipinos. 

The  "treacherous  Malay"  of  the  novels  is  the  type 
we  know  as  the  Moro.  The  first  really  authentic  de- 
scription we  have  of  him  is  in  the  story  of  the  voyage  of 
Captain  William  Dampier  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  He  spent  nearly  a  year  with  the  Sultan  of 
Maguindanao,  and  was  treated  by  the  Moros  with  the 
same  mixture  of  urbanity  and  rapacious  treachery  for 
which  they  were  known  to  the  Spanish  and  earlier 
Americans.  The  history  of  their  scattered  strongholds 
in  Mindanao  and  Sulu  is  one  long  weary  tale  of  blood- 
shed and  intrigue.  Settlement  of  the  lands  harried 
by  them  was  impossible  except  under  arms  and  with 
constant  vigilance.  The  story  is  not  unlike  that  of  our 
own  two  hundred  years  of  struggle  with  the  Indians  of 
the  Atlantic  coast.  The  population  was  kept  down  by 
incessant  warfare,  and  vast  areas  of  the  richest  lands 
in  that  part  of  the  world  lay  uncultivated.  Even  to- 
day there  are  only  about  a  half-million  people  in 
Mindanao,  while  in  the  island  of  Java  to  the  south, 
of  about  an  equal  area,  there  are  about  thirty-four 
million  inhabitants.  As  Norman  Angell  has  said  of 
the  red  Indians  of  our  own  country,  "A  hundred  thou- 
sand ' '  of  them  ' '  starved  in  a  country  where  a  hundred 
million  modern  Americans ' '  have  abundance. 

To-day,  the  Sultan  of  Maguindanao  has  surrendered 
all  pretensions  to  leadership  and  lives  quietly  in  a  vil- 
lage near  Zamboanga.  The  Sultan  of  Sulu  has  kept 
alive  the  traditions  of  petty  royalty,  but  has  now  made 
friends  with  the  Filipinos  as  well  as  with  the  Amer- 


THE  MOROS  95 

icans,  and  when  he  dies,  there  will  die  with  him  a 
dynasty  of  six  hundred  years  of  power.  The  Moro 
Province  is  now  fundamentally  and  essentially  a  part 
of  the  body  politic  of  the  Philippines,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  we  may  never  hear  again  the  suggestion, 
current  twenty  years  ago,  that  the  Moro  Archipelago 
be  separated  from  the  Philippine  Islands ;  this  sugges- 
tion aroused  the  cupidity  of  various  European  powers, 
and  was  even  advanced  by  anti-imperialistic  Americans 
in  an  attempt  to  solve  the  Philippine  question,  upon 
the  supposition  that  the  Filipinos  could  never  control 
the  Moros  if  they  were  given  their  independence. 
Every  year  now  makes  it  more  probable  that  this  polit- 
ical question  at  least  has  been  fairly  settled.  The  Fil- 
ipinos are  determined  that  fractional  minority  of  their 
eleven  millions  of  inhabitants  shall  not  be  used  as  an 
excuse  to  deprive  them  of  one  of  the  richest  parts  of 
their  heritage.  The  story  of  how  this  adjustment  of 
the  apparently  insoluble  Moro  problem  came  about  is 
worth  the  telling  in  some  detail. 

The  military  command  of  the  Moro  Province  was, 
up  to  1914,  one  of  the  great  prizes  of  the  army  admin- 
istration. It  brought  with  it  the  governorship  of  the 
province  under  the  Insular  Government,  and  offered  a 
life  of  excitement  and  achievement.  The  position  had 
been  held  by  such  distinguished  officers  as  General 
Leonard  Wood  and  General  Bliss,  and  the  governor 
when  I  arrived  was  the  famous  John  J.  Pershing.  Both 
Generals  Wood  and  Pershing  had  fought  sanguinary 
battles  with  the  Moros  in  Jolo  (Sulu)  in  which  thou- 
sands of  Moros  had  been  killed.  Minor  skirmishes  by 
the  score  had  necessitated  that  our  scattered  detach- 
ments always  keep  their  " powder  dry"  and  their  bayo- 


96      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

nets  bright.  Finally  General  Pershing  had  virtually 
accomplished  the  disarmament  of  the  Moros  and  the 
foundations  of  civil  government  were  fairly  laid.  He 
had  gradually  relieved  many  of  the  military  officers 
from  administrative  posts  under  him  and  filled  those 
positions  with  civilians,  especially  officers  of  the  con- 
stabulary. 

Soon  after  my  arrival  in  Manila,  I  received  word 
from  General  Pershing  that  he  wished  to  be  relieved 
after  four  years  of  service  as  Governor  of  the  Moro 
Province.  I  earnestly  requested  him  to  remain,  but  the 
condition  of  his  health  absolutely  forbade  that.  So,  in 
November,  1913,  accompanied  by  the  commanding  gen- 
eral, the  late  Major-General  J.  Franklin  Bell,  Major 
(later  Brigadier-General)  Herman  Hall,  and  Dr.  N. 
M.  Saleeby, — an  American  physician  at  Manila,  who 
was  a  recognized  expert  on  Moro  dialects,  and  had  dur- 
ing his  previous  residence  in  Syria  learned  Arabic,  a 
language  which  the  Moro  leaders  generally  understood, 
— I  joined  General  Pershing  at  Zamboanga  for  a  tour 
of  inspection. 

Zamboanga,  the  capital  of  the  southern  islands,  is 
the  most  attractive  of  the  coast  towns  of  the  Philip- 
pines, and  is  a  port  of  call  for  a  few  Australian  and 
Singapore  steamers.  Indeed,  as  in  culture  and  tradi- 
tions the  southern  islands  are  closely  connected  with 
the  parent  stem  of  the  Malay  world,  the  commerce  and 
associations  of  the  petty  rulers  of  those  islands  had 
for  generations  been  chiefly  with  Singapore.  As  public 
order  gradually  became  more  assured  in  Mindanao, 
Zamboanga  became  the  point  of  debarkation  for  an 
increasing  number  of  immigrant  Visayans  from  Cebu 
and  Bohol,  and  there  was  also  a  mixture  of  descendants 


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THE  MOROS  97 

of  Tagalogs  from  Luzon,  four  hundred  miles  to  the 
north,  whence  their  grandfathers  had  been  deported  by 
the  Spaniards,  chiefly  for  so-called  political  offenses. 
Even  Rizal  was  for  some  time  a  political  prisoner,  hav- 
ing been  deported  to  Dapitan  on  the  north  coast  of 
Mindanao.  From  year  to  year  the  trade  and  political 
relations  of  the  great  islands  of  Mindanao  had  drawn 
more  and  more  closely  to  those  of  the  North.  Although 
only  four  degrees  above  the  equator,  Zamboanga  is 
blessed  with  cooling  breezes  from  three  points  of  the 
compass,  and,  owing  to  an  equable  rainfall  and  freedom 
from  typhoons,  it  is  one  of  the  garden  spots  of  the 
archipelago.  There  General  Pershing  had  his  head- 
quarters as  Governor  of  the  Moro  Province.  The  near- 
by Moros  were  friendly  and  their  chief  or  dato,  Mandi, 
was  loyal  to  the  Government  up  to  the  day  of  his 
death. 

In  physical  characteristics  the  Moros  are  very  much 
like  other  Filipinos.  In  dress  they  are  infinitely  gayer 
and  more  picturesque.  Their  petty  sultans  lived  in 
much  style  in  past  generations,  and  when  their  power 
was  broken  a  great  number  of  small  chieftains  set  up 
their  claims  to  local  leadership  over  more  or  less  sav- 
age followers.  Their  dignity  of  bearing  is  notable,  as 
is  their  personal  vanity.  Decked  in  bright  colors  and 
with  pearls  from  the  near-by  Sulu  Sea,  they  imitate 
in  a  feeble  way  the  magnificence  of  the  Indian  rajahs. 
The  only  gold  coins  in  circulation  in  the  Philippines 
were  gradually  collected  by  the  Moros  to  make  buttons 
for  their  gay  silk  jackets.  Gaudy  head-dresses  and 
skin-tight  trousers  complete  their  costume,  while  a 
murderous-looking  kris,  or  wavy-bladed  short  sword, 
and  a  dagger  with  handle  of  carved  ivory  and  gold 


98      MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

adorn  the  dato.  The  greater  the  dato,  the  larger,  of 
course,  his  following  of  personal  attendants,  the  more 
important  his  umbrella  of  state  or  decorated  walking- 
stick.  A  servant  behind  him  carries  his  buyo  box, 
made  by  some  Moro  artisan,  of  finely  chased  silver  and 
inlay  work,  and  containing  lime,  betel-nut,  and  leaves 
for  chewing. 

The  Moro  are  men  of  great  personal  valor,  as  they 
showed  in  many  a  hand-to-hand  combat  with  cold  steel 
over  the  ramparts  of  their  little  forts ;  a  rush  of  these 
warriors  armed  with  the  kris  was  almost  irresistible 
by  a  party  of  men  advancing  single-file  through  the 
high  cogon  grass.  The  three  or  four  hundred  thou- 
sand Moros  scattered  over  this  great  territory  have 
made  as  much  trouble  in  the  past  as  ten  times  their 
numbers  of  more  peaceful  and  tractable  people  could 
have  made.  Their  sheer  courage  made  them  popular 
with  our  military  men. 

There  is  something  in  Mohammedanism,  especially 
of  Arab  tradition,  which  renders  the  followers  of  the 
Prophet  difficult  to  deal  with.  Their  religious  train- 
ing, which  consists  merely  in  committing  to  memory 
the  verses  of  the  Arabic  version  of  the  Koran,  inclines 
them  to  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  tribal  hostility  and 
restless  intrigue,  like  their  cultural  ancestors  in  the 
days  of  Mohammed.  How  much  of  the  present-day 
spirit  of  hatred,  revenge,  and  jealousy  even  among 
the  nations  of  Europe  is  due  to  the  direct  teachings 
of  the  Old  Testament?  The  Moros  are  difficult  to  in- 
fluence with  modern  ideas,  but  the  American  school 
system  is  now  operating  vigorously  to  leaven  the  mass. 
The  Moros  have  plenty  of  panglimas,  or  priests,  but 
no  hierarchy  through  which  the  Government  might 


THE  MOROS  99 

reach  and  control  them;  there  are  many  hadjis, — men 
and  women  who  have  performed  the  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca, — but  they  are,  perhaps,  the  most  ardent  up- 
holders of  the  old  system.  The  Moro  is  a  poor  Mo- 
hammedan, after  all,  and  practises  chiefly  the  super- 
stitions of  a  faith  of  which  he  is  intensely  proud  with- 
out having  a  true  understanding  of  its  spiritual  en- 
lightenment. As  Governor  Carpenter  has  said, 
1  *  .  .  .  he  is  still  a  pagan  with  a  veneer  of  Moham- 
medanism." His  religion  is  not  of  the  militant  type,  he 
does  not  make  any  effort  to  impose  his  faith  on  others, 
and  is  entirely  tolerant  of  other  beliefs.  He  apparently 
values  Islam  as  a  superior  caste  to  which  he  is  proud 
to  belong. 

The  chief  settlements  of  the  Moros  are  in  Jolo  and 
Siasi,  in  Zamboanga,  in  Cotabato,  in  Lana'o,  and  in 
southern  Palawan.  All  of  these  places  were  visited  on 
our  first  trip  of  inspection.  Public  meetings  were  held 
in  each  locality,  and  the  native  speeches  (duly  inter- 
preted for  our  benefit)  were  often  picturesque  with 
Oriental  imagery  and  enlivened  with  brief  conventional 
outbursts  of  real  or  simulated  passion.  The  Moro  is 
a  great  boaster,  but,  like  many  more  primitive  races, 
he  is  an  accurate  and  shrewd  reader  of  character.  His 
tendency  is  to  tell  the  vistor  just  what  he  thinks  the 
person  addressed  will  like.  Military  men  are  generally 
treated  to  many  references  to  the  bloodthirsty  valor  of 
the  Moros,  and  are  told  these  brave  warriors  would  as 
soon  cut  off  the  head  of  a  Filipino  as  eat  breakfast. 
Filipino  officials,  on  the  contrary,  are  addressed  with 
much  sentimental  talk  of  friendship  and  brotherhood. 
The  Arab  merchants  of  earlier  days,  and  the  modern 
wandering  Arab  priests  are  their  teachers.    The  un- 


100    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

reliability  of  the  Arab  is  proverbial;  only  the  other 
day,  in  the  British  House  of  Commons,  I  heard  a  frank 
statement,  made  by  a  recognized  expert  on  Arabian 
politics,  of  how  completely  Sir  Percy  Sykes  was  "  taken 
in"  by  the  Arab  chiefs  in  Damascus  in  1920. 

At  every  meeting  the  most  important  question 
raised  by  the  Moros  was  whether  or  not  the  Govern- 
ment intended  to  interfere  with  their  religious  cus- 
toms. We  always  assured  them,  to  the  contrary,  that 
the  United  States  Government  did  not  interfere  in 
matters  of  religion.  Eeligious  interference  was  the 
historic  cause  of  the  failure  of  Spain  with  the  Moros : 
the  aim  of  the  Spanish  Government  was  conversion  to 
Christianity,  and  every  Moro  was  willing  to  fight  to 
the  death  for  his  religion.  The  disheartening  failure 
of  our  own  American  colonists  to  deal  peaceably,  or 
even  honorably,  with  the  Indians  (except  in  Pennsyl- 
vania for  seventy  years  under  Quaker  rule)  was  due  to 
the  land  hunger  of  our  race.  The  Spaniards  had  no 
success  in  dealing  with  the  Moro  because  they  insisted 
upon  religious  conversion.  Under  American  rule,  once 
the  religious  question  was  out  of  the  way,  the  path 
was  cleared  for  a  policy  of  conciliation  and  attraction. 

There  is  always  the  possibility  of  confusion  in  the 
mind  of  the  Moros  between  religion  and  custom,  their 
sultans  being  the  religious  heads  of  a  people  over  whom 
too  often  rule  meant  the  right  to  steal  cattle  and  en- 
slave women.  Lord  Cromer,  in  his  first  meeting 
with  the  beaten  chieftains  of  the  Soudan  and  after  his 
promise  to  respect  their  religion,  was  confronted  with 
English  public  opinion  at  home.  Did  that  mean  to 
permit  slavery?  The  main  source  of  trouble  with  the 
Moros  now  is  the  question  of  polygamy.    While  that 


THE  MOROS  101 

is  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  religious  tenet  of  the  Mo- 
hammedans, and  is  not  enjoined  by  the  Koran,  it  is 
universally  permitted  by  their  religion.  When  the 
Jones  Bill  came  before  Congress,  I  wrote  Secretary 
Garrison  that  a  law  already  existed  in  the  Philippines 
against  polygamy,  but  if  the  Government  wanted  some- 
body to  enforce  that  statute  among  the  Moros,  it  would 
have  to  find  another  governor-general,  since  the  Moros 
were  reduced  to  order  for  the  first  time  in  history,  and 
I  knew  of  no  issue  upon  which  I  was  sure  that  all  of 
them  could  unite  except  that  of  polygamy.  As  an  ex- 
ample of  the  petty  war  which  might  result,  I  cited  to 
him  the  forty  years  of  fighting  just  terminated  in  North 
Sumatra  between  the  Dutch  and  the  Achinese.  As  I 
then  stated,  the  only  way  successfully  to  stamp  out 
polygamy  among  the  Moros  is  to  educate  them  in  the 
public  schools, — especially  the  girls.  The  process  of 
education  is  now  going  on,  though  meeting  with  some 
resistance  on  the  part  of  the  older  datos,  as  was  evi- 
denced by  the  affray  at  Pata,  near  Jolo,  in  December, 
1920,  when  the  constabulary  killed  thirty-three  Moros 
in  a  fight  growing  out  of  local  resistance  to  the  attend- 
ance at  school  of  some  Mohammedan  girls.  It  seems 
certain  that  when  they  are  educated,  the  women  them- 
selves will  oppose  the  practice  of  polygamy.  Many 
of  the  younger  men,  too,  would  probably  welcome  a 
change.  There  are  not  enough  women  to  go  around, 
now  that  piratical  raiding  of  near-by  communities  has 
been  stopped.  The  peculiar  Malay  practice  of  running 
amuck,  or  going  juramentado  (oath-taken),  in  which 
the  individual  dedicates  himself  to  death  in  a  mad 
frenzy  of  killing  right  and  left  all  whom  he  meets,  is 
often  due  to  rage  on  the  part  of  the  young  men  because 


102     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  young  women  are  brought  up  for  the  harems  of  the 
chiefs. 

Our  visit  to  Jolo  gave  us  an  opportunity  of  meeting 
the  sultan,  Hadji  Mohammed  Jamalul  Kiram,  and  his 
1  'prime  minister,"  Hadji  Butu,  later  on  appointed 
senator  in  the  Philippine  Legislature.  The  sultan  is 
a  small  man,  of  less  impressive  personality  than  others 
of  his  caste  whom  I  have  met  in  Borneo  and  Java.  He 
had  a  gay  time  on  Broadway,  on  his  visit  to  New  York 
several  years  ago,  and  was  famous  on  the  "Great 
White  Way"  for  his  pearls.  He  is  well  disposed 
toward  Americans,  for  the  Moro  is  an  intensely  prac- 
tical man  when  it  comes  to  a  final  recognition  of  over- 
whelming force;  he  has  of  late  years  made  friends 
with  the  Filipinos.  Had  he  been  a  stronger  man,  he 
would  have  been  of  great  use  to  the  Government,  but 
his  rule  had  always  been  disputed  even  in  Jolo,  where 
two  or  more  factions  have  generally  existed  through 
the  generations. 

Generals  Bell,  Pershing,  and  Hall  accompanied  me 
on  a  motor  trip  across  the  island  of  Jolo,  past  the 
little  mountain  of  Bagsak,  where  five  months  before 
Pershing  had  broken  the  Moro  power  in  a  pitched  bat- 
tle in  which  thousands  of  fighting  Mohammedans,  men 
and  women,  were  killed.  Some  years  later,  I  met  a 
young  lady  who  was  one  of  the  few  survivors  of  that 
Moro  camp ;  she  was  then  teaching  school  at  a  little  vil- 
lage on  the  other  side  of  the  island.  General  Pershing 
had  been  much  criticized  by  good  people  at  home  for 
the  killing  of  women  in  this  battle,  but,  as  he  explained 
to  me,  the  women  fought  in  the  front  ranks  with  the 
men,  and  one  could  not  tell  men  and  women  apart  be- 
hind the  trenches.    It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  Moro 


THE  MOROS  103 

men  and  women  are  often  indistinguishable ;  the  men 
have  no  beards  nor  mustaches,  and  both  sexes  wear  the 
hair  long.  Many  of  their  fiercest  warriors  are  slender 
men  with  a  feline  or  feminine  countenance.  On  this 
same  inspection  trip,  on  the  road  to  Lanao,  General 
Hall  stopped  an  individual  who  was  passing  and  asked 
if  it  were  a  man  or  woman ;  the  person  addressed  re- 
plied with  a  smile  that  he  was  a  man  and  a  fighter !  His 
smile  and  his  sense  of  humor  are  the  most  pleasing  of 
the  Moro's  characteristics. 

Our  motor  trip  across  the  island  of  Jolo  was  intended 
to  prove  the  pacification  of  that  much-vexed  region. 
Until  recently,  no  visitor  had  ever  ventured  outside  the 
walls  of  the  city  of  Jolo  without  an  armed  escort.  A 
few  months  before,  that  splendid  young  American, 
Governor  Vernon  I.  Whitney  of  Jolo,  a  former  foot- 
ball star  from  Iowa — then  just  recovering  from  a 
wound  received  in  storming  a  cota,  or  fort — was  walk- 
ing outside  the  walls  of  Jolo  when  he  was  suddenly  at- 
tacked by  two  Moros  armed  with  bolos.  He  managed 
to  "tackle"  one  of  them,  emptied  his  small  revolver 
into  the  other,  then  took  the  bolo  from  the  man  he  held 
and  literally  cut  him  in  two. 

In  all  engagements  against  the  Moros,  even  when 
entrenched,  Filipinos  have  fought  under  our  officers 
with  great  zeal  and  valor  alongside  the  American  sol- 
diers, generally  taking  the  positions  by  storm.  The 
last  pitched  engagement  against  the  Moros  was  the 
reduction  of  the  Bayan  Cota,  the  remaining  fort  on 
the  south  shore  of  Lake  Lanao,  in  1917.  About  fifteen 
hundred  Moros,  in  revolt  against  the  Government  be- 
cause of  opposition  to  the  schools  and  to  the  land  sur- 
vey, had  gathered  there  and  refused  to  give  up  their 


104     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

guns.  That  time  the  constabulary  borrowed  from  the 
army  a  battery  of  mountain  machine-guns,  or  "mule 
guns,"  an  officer,  and  forty  Scout  soldiers,  and  posi- 
tive orders  were  given  to  restrain  the  Filipino  constab- 
ulary forces  from  storming  the  cota.  Instead  of  suf- 
fering the  usual  severe  casualties,  the  government 
forces  sustained  the  loss  of  only  one  Filipino  officer 
and  one  soldier  wounded,  and  the  machine-guns  utterly 
broke  up  the  resistance  and  drove  the  Moros  from  the 
cota. 

The  peace  we  found  upon  our  visit  to  Jolo  in  1913 
was  that  of  subjugation,  for  few  persons  were  visible, 
and  little  cultivation  was  to  be  seen  on  the  surrounding 
hills.  Just  three  years  later,  on  the  same  spot,  with  a 
small  party  of  government  officials  and  friends,  I  had 
a  delightful  two  days  in  camp  with  about  seven  hun- 
dred armed  Moros,  when  we  went  deer-hunting  with 
spears  on  horseback.  Our  party  was  unarmed  and 
without  escort.  This  second  trip  across  the  island 
was  through  fields  of  grain  and  banana  plantations. 
But  for  the  work  of  General  Pershing,  civil  govern- 
ment could  not  have  been  instituted  in  Jolo;  and  but 
for  civil  government,  Jolo  would  still  be  unsafe  for 
the  visitor. 


CHAPTER  Vin 

Civil  Government  in  Moroland 

THE  impending  departure  of  General  Pershing  for 
home  necessitated  an  immediate  decision  on  the 
appointment  of  his  successor,  which  involved  the  ques- 
tion of  installing  at  once  a  civil  government  in  Moro- 
land. The  War  Department  had  already  proposed  to 
me  the  name  of  a  well-known  general  as  Pershing's 
successor,  but  my  predecessor  as  governor-general 
had,  I  understood,  intended  that  the  next  governor  of 
the  Moro  Province  should  be  a  civilian,  and  that  was 
my  own  earnest  desire.  A  long-continued  government 
of  military  men  is  in  itself  an  invitation  to  war.  Men 
who  had  just  come  through  many  a  hard-fought  skir- 
mish with  and  surprise  attack  from  the  Moros  could 
hardly  be  expected  to  believe  them  fit  for  civil  govern- 
ment. Such  regarded  them  as  untamable  wild  animals, 
and  the  custom,  along  the  Lanao  Military  road  at  least, 
was  to  take  a  pot-shot  at  any  Moro  seen  on  the  hill- 
sides. The  military  manner  in  administration,  more- 
over, leads  to  all  sorts  of  irritation  and  sometimes  to 
reprisals.  The  recent  rebellion  of  Dato  Ali  and  his 
men  was  an  illustration  in  point.  In  1905,  at  the  head- 
waters of  the  Cotabato  River, — a  region  never  brought 
under  effective  government  control  until  about  1917, — 
lived  several  thousand  Moros  who  had  taken  to  the 
mountains  in  defiance  of  established  order.  Their 
chief  was  Ali,  who  claimed  he  had  never  submitted  to 

105 


106     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

any  man.  One  day,  Dato  Ali  came  slipping  alone  up 
to  the  military  headquarters  at  Cotabato,  to  present 
some  grievance  to  the  Government.  The  American 
sergeant-in-charge  had  some  dispute  with  him  and  end- 
ed by  kicking  him  down  the  stairs.  A  very  picturesque 
little  war  resulted,  lasting  several  months,  and  costing 
a  number  of  lives  and  much  money.  Dato  Ali  and 
many  of  his  followers  were  killed  in  battle. 

Both  General  Bell  and  General  Pershing  recom- 
mended to  me  the  appointment  of  a  civilian  as  gov- 
ernor; and  General  Bell  stated  that  he  wished  to  re- 
move all  white  American  troops  from  the  province. 
Both  policies  were  agreed  upon,  and  promptly  carried 
out.  We  canvassed  names  for  the  office  of  Governor 
of  the  Moro  Province,  and  the  two  generals  could  agree 
on  only  one  man,  Frank  W.  Carpenter,  the  then  Chief 
of  the  Executive  Bureau,  in  Manila.  The  wisdom  of 
their  judgment  was  proved  by  the  event.  I  cabled  to 
the  Secretary  of  War  the  result  of  these  conferences 
and  that  ''Peace  is  established  throughout  the  province 
and  is  liable  to  be  permanent  if  properly  managed." 
This  opinion  was  entirely  justified  by  the  outcome,  but 
largely  because  of  the  tact,  courage,  and  skill  of  one 
man,  the  new  Governor  of  the  Moro  Province,  who 
was  for  seven  years  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of 
its  much  discussed  and  restless  population. 

Mr.  Carpenter  was  at  first  somewhat  reluctant  to 
abandon  the  forum  of  his  fifteen  years  of  activity  in 
the  seat  of  government  in  Manila,  but  on  December 
15th  he  became  the  governor,  "believing  with  me,"  as 
I  cabled  home, ' '  that  now  the  time  has  come  to  inaugu- 
rate a  policy  among  the  Moros  which  will  thereby 
greatly  increase  peace  and  prosperity  in  these  re- 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  MOROLAND         107 

gions."  On  December  20,  1913,  the  name  of  the  Moro 
Province  was  changed  to  "Department  of  Mindanao 
and  Sum,"  and  the  special-government  provinces  in 
Mindanao,  such  as  Agusan  and  Butuan,  which  under 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  had  been  the  source  of 
endless  administrative  friction,  were  included  in  the 
new  department,  of  which  the  land  area  was  now  36,500 
square  miles,  about  one  third  of  that  of  the  entire 
Philippine  Islands. 

Three  months  later  I  again  inspected  these  same 
regions;  Governor  Carpenter  was  in  full  control  of 
matters,  and  his  extraordinary  ability  and  incessant 
activity  were  already  producing  results.  Meanwhile, 
Commanding-General  Bell  had  withdrawn  all  the  white 
soldiers  from  the  department  and  had  left  garrisons 
of  Philippine  Scouts  (Filipinos)  at  Overton  and  Keith- 
ley  in  Lanao,  at  Ludlow  Barracks  in  Cotabato,  and  at 
the  barracks  in  the  towns  of  Zamboanga  and  Jolo.  The 
strength  of  the  constabulary  in  the  department  had 
been  increased  to  sixty  officers  (partly  American)  and 
nine  hundred  and  seventy- two  men,  all  Filipinos,  under 
Colonel  Peter  E.  Traub  of  the  United  States  Army. 
Colonel  Traub  during  three  years  (1914-1917)  con- 
tinued the  policy  of  General  Pershing  as  to  disarma- 
ment, and  confiscated  one  thousand  firearms  without 
serious  resistance  from  their  possessors,  often  being 
helped  by  the  Moros  themselves,  who  were  tired  of 
being  harried  and  robbed  by  their  own  outlaw  des- 
perados. Later  on,  when  our  country  entered  the  World 
War  in  1917,  even  the  Scout  garrisons  were  withdrawn 
from  the  department,  except  one  battalion  at  Pettit 
Barracks,  Zamboanga. 

On  March  26,  1914, 1  was  able  to  cable  to  the  Secre- 


108     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

tary  of  War:  "Just  returned  from  an  inspection  trip 
Department  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu.  Conditions  gen- 
erally excellent.  Agriculture  extending  materially 
Lanao  and  Jolo.  Peace  conditions  improving  there 
and  particularly  in  mountains  head  Cotabato  Valley.' r 
And  again  on  May  21,  1914 :  ' '  Report  peaceful  surren- 
der yesterday  Cotabato  famous  Moro  outlaw  Alamada 
with  more  than  3000  men.  Alamada  outlaw  chieftain 
since  Spanish  days."  The  next  winter  Alamada  ac- 
companied Governor  Carpenter,  with  other  datos,  to 
the  Manila  carnival.  He  seemed  to  me  like  a  wild  bird, 
poised  for  instant  flight,  and  supremely  uncomfortable 
among  the  large  crowd  of  officials  at  Malacafian  Pal- 
ace; his  hand  was  cold  from  suppressed  nervousness 
and  embarrassment.  He  had  agreed  to  come  to  Manila 
upon  the  assurance  that  he  could  carry  his  kris  at  all 
times,  and  that  he  would  not  be  obliged  to  wear 
"Christian"  clothing.  Before  the  end  of  his  first  day 
in  Manila  he  had  discarded  his  kris  and  surreptitiously 
procured  an  American  suit  of  clothes.  Upon  his  return 
to  Cotabato,  he  became  insistent  in  his  demands  for 
schools.  There  were  many  similar  cases  in  the  records 
of  these  years. 

All  of  Governor  Carpenter 's  reports  are  to  be  found 
printed  in  full,  in  the  Bureau  of  Insular  Affairs  in 
Washington.  No  extended  analysis  of  his  great  work 
is  intended  here.  He  kept  on  terms  of  friendship  with 
all  the  varied  elements  of  an  uneasy  and  perplexing 
population.  His  daily  conferences  were  with  Moro 
datos,  American  navy  and  army  officers,  investors  or 
speculators  of  a  dozen  different  nationalities,  bishops 
and  missionaries  of  the  Christian  churches,  Arab 
priests,  Filipino  and  American  officials,  tourists  and 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  MOROLAND  109 

visitors,  Japanese  hemp-planters  and  merchants, 
Chinese  traders  and  smugglers,  newspaper  men  and 
emissaries  from  the  near-by  ports  of  Borneo  and  Cele- 
bes, and  shy,  pagan  men  from  the  forest-clad  moun- 
tains of  Mindanao.  That  he  was  able  to  reconcile  all 
those  diverse  and  potentially  antagonistic  elements 
speaks  for  itself;  he  did  more:  he  brought  them  into 
some  sort  of  cohesion  and  cooperation  to  work  for  the 
development  of  that  vast  territory  and  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  public  order.  He  was  particularly  kind 
and  patient  in  his  dealings  with  the  suspicious  and 
" jumpy"  Moro  datos.  He  received  much  assistance 
from  the  ladies  of  the  family  of  the  Sultan  of  Sulu, 
who,  as  is  so  often  the  case  among  the  Mohammedans 
(as  for  example  in  Afghanistan  to-day),  were  the  real 
managers  of  the  sultan's  affairs.  He  exercised  the 
utmost  care  in  encouraging  in  the  Moro  chieftains  a 
sense  of  social  ease  and  conventionality,  even  teaching 
hands  accustomed  only  to  the  sword  and  spear  how  to 
use  the  complicated  machinery  of  the  modern  tea-table, 
against  the  day  when  they  should  visit  Manila.  Above 
all,  he  was  firm,  as  firm  as  any  military  commander 
could  be,  when  military  operations  were  necessary; 
but  his  firmness  was  finely  tempered  with  tact  and 
understanding  of  human  nature. 

The  history  of  his  negotiations  with  the  Sultan  of 
Sulu  gave  him  an  opportunity  for  the  display  of  his 
diplomatic  talents.  The  House  of  Sulu  had  indeed 
come  upon  unprofitable  days.  Their  genealogy  of  six 
hundred  years  now  served  them  to  no  greater  purpose 
than  their  claim  to  descent  from  Alexander  the  Great. 
To  be  sure,  the  sultan  was  treated  as  a  monarch  when 
he  visited  Singapore  or  that  portion  of  Borneo  which 


110     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

he  had  leased  to  the  British  North  Borneo  Company. 
There,  at  least,  he  flew  his  own  flag  and  received  a  sa- 
lute of  twenty-one  guns.  But  in  the  Philippines  his 
position  was  anomalous.  Under  Spain  he  had  exer- 
cised de-jure  and  de-facto  sovereignty  in  the  Sulu 
Archipelago,  except  in  the  ports  of  Jolo,  Siasi,  and 
Bongao.  He  was  then  a  "protected"  sovereign.  He 
never  opposed  the  United  States  in  arms,  and  never 
surrendered  to  our  army.  He  had  executed  a  treaty 
in  1899  with  General  Bates  which  failed  of  adoption  by 
the  United  States  Senate  because  it  recognized  polyg- 
amy. This  "treaty"  was  abrogated  by  President 
Eoosevelt  on  March  2,  1904,  because  the  sultan  had 
failed  to  keep  order  in  Sulu,  according  to  his  agree- 
ment. He  replied  that  the  Americans  had  insisted 
upon  the  disbanding  of  his  army,  and  he  had  never 
surrendered  his  claim  to  sovereignty.  To  say  the  least, 
the  legal  position  of  the  sultan  and  of  the  lands  in  the 
Sulu  Archipelago  was  unsettled. 

Governor  Carpenter  undertook  to  straighten  out  the 
tangle.  On  March  11,  1915,  after  eleven  days  and 
nights  of  negotiation,  with  which  I  was  kept  in  touch 
by  cable,  he  signed  an  agreement  with  the  sultan  by 
which  the  latter,  for  himself  and  his  heirs,  renounced 
temporal  sovereignty  over  the  Sulu  Islands,  including 
the  "right"  to  collect  taxes,  the  right  to  decide  law- 
suits, and  the  reversionary  right  to  all  the  lands.  In 
exchange,  he  was  recognized  by  the  Government  as 
head  of  the  Mohammedan  Church  in  the  Philippines, 
his  pension  of  Pesos  12,000  was  continued  for  life,  and 
he  was  given  a  grant  of  land  in  Jolo.  He  was  wise 
enough  to  accept  the  substance,  however  small,  for  the 
shadow,  however  great.   So  ends  the  Sultanate  of  Sulu. 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  MOROLAND         111 

One  clause  of  the  agreement  states  that  "The  Sultan 
of  Sulu  and  his  adherents  and  people  of  the  Moham- 
medan faith  shall  have  the  same  religous  freedom  had 
by  the  adherents  of  all  other  religious  creeds,  the  prac- 
tice of  which  is  not  in  violation  of  the  basic  principles 
of  the  laws  of  the  United  States."  This  bars 
polygamy. 

If  Governor  Carpenter  had  been  a  citizen  of  one  of 
the  European  colonizing  powers,  he  would  have  been 
loaded  with  honors  by  the  home  government ;  as  it  is, 
his  name  is  unknown  to  one  per  cent,  of  the  American 
public.  He  has  been  given  a  substantial  pecuniary 
grant  by  the  Philippine  Legislature,  and  is  still  active 
in  the  service  in  Manila. 

His  chief  agents  in  Mindanao  and  Sulu  were,  first, 
the  constabulary  as  patrols  and,  later,  when  the  hinter- 
land was  gradually  brought  under  control  as  perma- 
nent posts ;  next,  medical  men  or  Filipino  practicantes 
who  set  up  their  little  dispensaries  in  the  most  remote 
regions ;  and  finally  the  public-school  teachers,  also,  for 
the  most  part,  Filipinos.  The  shyest  tribesman  quickly 
gave  his  confidence  to  the  medical  man.  In  the  course 
of  a  few  years  the  leading  Moros  were  clamoring  for 
public  schools  in  widely  separated  districts.  In  fact, 
the  demand  for  schools,  in  view  of  these  people's  oc- 
casional antagonism  later  on  to  compulsory  school 
attendance,  is  hard  to  understand.  Certainly,  nothing 
has  been  done  by  the  school-teachers  to  offend  their 
prejudices.  Perhaps  it  is,  as  Governor  Guingona  ex- 
plained in  his  report  for  1920,  because  the  older  Moros 
believed  that  the  schools  "were  good  only  if  those  who 
were  educated  in  the  same  could  be  immediately  em- 
ployed in  the  public  service.' '    Perhaps,  however,  the 


112     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

parents  were  zealous  enough  in  theory  for  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children,  but  in  practice  were  made  un- 
comfortable by  the  new  ideas  brought  home  by  the 
younger  generation.  Very  little  had  been  done  for 
non-sectarian  education  prior  to  1914.  In  that  year 
the  Insular  Legislature  made  its  first  contribution  for 
that  purpose  to  the  department  funds,  Pesos  204,523. 
Later  on,  Pesos  1,000,000  was  voted  for  primary 
schools  among  the  non-Christians.  By  the  end  of  1919 
there  were  30  American  and  785  Filipino  teachers  in 
the  Department  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu,  and  32,438 
pupils  in  the  public  schools,  of  whom  nearly  one  half 
were  girls.  The  church  missionaries,  American,  Dutch, 
and  Spanish,  helped  on  the  good  work  with  their  own 
schools.  Bishop  Brent  had  both  schools  and  hospitals. 
My  own  relations  with  Governor  Carpenter  were, 
of  course,  those  of  utmost  confidence  in  his  adminis- 
tration. At  a  distance  of  four  hundred  miles  across 
the  Sulu  and  Visayan  seas,  I  recognized  the  impossi- 
bility of  constant  interference  with  his  work.  I  tried 
to  give  him  the  same  freedom  of  judgment  and  action 
as  was  accorded  me  by  "Washington.  If  the  Secretary 
of  War  felt  at  times  uneasy  over  the  rapid  progress  I 
made  in  Filipinization,  I  had  the  same  sentiment  of 
doubt  about  the  Filipinization  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu 
by  Governor  Carpenter.  It  had  been  a  frequent  boast 
of  the  Moros  that  they  would  kill  any  Filipino  officials 
sent  to  govern  them.  I  was  truly  apprehensive  of  the 
effect  of  any  disaster  of  that  nature.  While  it  is  true 
that  they  had  killed  the  Filipino  village  officials  who 
took  charge  of  Cotabato  during  the  early  days  of  Amer- 
ican occupation  of  the  Philippines,  their  killing  seemed 
to  be  indiscriminate ;  they  had  also  killed  Spanish  and 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  MOROLAND  113 

Americans  whenever  possible.  When  I  was  at  Lanao 
in  1915,  my  aide-de-camp,  Major  George  S.  Holmes, 
who  had  served  there  before  in  the  years  of  "  excur- 
sions and  alarums,"  met  an  old  Moro  friend  who  said: 

"  You  see  how  well  we  treat  the  Filipinos  now?  Why, 
a  Filipino  could  lie  right  down  to  sleep  beside  us  and 
we  wouldn't  kill  him!" 

A  reassuring  state  of  progress;  was  it  not? 

The  Philippine  Commission  had  the  exclusive  power 
of  legislating  for  the  non-Christian  population  of  the 
islands  down  to  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  Jones 
Law  in  August,  1916,  when  general  legislative  powers 
as  to  all  parts  of  the  archipelago  were  given  to  the 
Legislature.  Up  to  October,  1914,  the  commission,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  controlled  by  an  American  major- 
ity. Thus  the  Filipinos  had  not  yet  been  entrusted 
with  the  control  of  the  non-Christian  minorities.  The 
idea  seemed  to  be  that  they  would  exploit  them  or  neg- 
lect them  for  their  own  selfish  advantage.  When  the 
change  was  made  to  Filipino  control  on  the  commission 
in  1914,  and  later  in  the  whole  Legislature,  I  never 
observed  a  single  act  of  discrimination  or  lack  of  gen- 
erosity on  the  part  of  the  Filipino  officials  toward 
their  less  advanced  kinsmen.  On  the  contrary,  they 
seemed  anxious  to  prove  their  qualification  for  guard- 
ianship over  the  welfare  of  the  non-Christians.  A  great 
deal  of  care  and  energy  was  expended  by  them  in  these 
matters,  and  they  showed  the  greatest  concern  in  the 
progress  and  development  of  the  Mohammedans  and 
pagans,  and  a  determination  to  assimilate  them  as 
rapidly  as  possible  into  the  general  body  of  citizens. 
Few  cases  of  oppression  or  lack  of  justice  in  dealing 
with  the  inferior  populations  came  to*  my  attention 


114     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

during  these  years;  on  the  whole,  this  is  one  of  the 
brightest  pages  in  the  history  of  the  decade,  and  one 
of  the  most  substantial  accomplishments  of  American 
ideals  and  example. 

The  commission  had  entrusted  the  Hon.  Vicente 
Ilustre  as  a  sub-committee  with  the  work  of  drafting  a 
new  code  of  laws  for  the  Department  of  Mindanao  and 
Sulu.  This  was  worked  over  with  the  greatest  care  and 
circumspection,  and  passed  in  the  summer  of  1914, 
effective  September  1st  of  that  year.  Although  it  is 
never  easy  to  legislate  in  general  terms  for  a  popula- 
tion composed  of  varying  strata  of  civilization,  this 
new  code  was  a  substantial  accomplishment.  The  main 
idea  was  to  break  down  the  barriers  which  had  kept 
the  inhabitants  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu  apart  as  wards 
or  children,  and  give  them  the  privileges  of  the  gen- 
eral laws  of  the  islands  in  so  far  as  that  was  then 
possible,  to  begin  in  earnest  the  process  of  assimila- 
tion. The  all-important  question  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Filipino  leaders  toward  their  less-advanced  brethren 
can  best  be  expressed  in  their  own  language,  in  the 
preamble  of  the  new  code  for  Mindanao  and  Sulu  (No. 
2408,  Philippine  Commission,  July  23,  1914) : 

Whereas  it  is  the  desire  of  the  people  of  the  islands  to  pro- 
mote the  most  moral,  social,  and  political  development  of  the 
inhabitants  of  said  department  in  order  to  accomplish  their 
complete  unification  with  the  inhabitants  of  other  provinces 
of  the  Archipelago ;  and 

Whereas  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose  the  exten- 
sion thereto  of  the  general  laws  of  the  country  and  of  the 
general  forms  and  procedures  of  government  followed  in  other 
provinces  under  certain  limitations  in  harmony  with  the  spe- 
cial conditions  now  prevailing  in  said  department,  is  among 
other  measures  advisable  and  necessary,  but  always  with  the 
understanding  that  such  limitations  are  temporary  and  that 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  MOROLAND  115 

it  is  the  firm  and  decided  purpose  of  the  Philippine  Com- 
mission to  abolish  such  limitations  together  with  the  depart- 
mental government,  as  soon  as  the  several  districts  of  said 
region  shall  have  been  converted  into  regularly  organized 
provinces;  now,  therefore,  .  .  . 

It  is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  report  that  the  Philip- 
pine Legislature  in  1921  redeemed  the  promise  of  that 
last  clause;  the  Department  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu 
was  then  by  law  abolished,  and  the  constituent  prov- 
inces absorbed  into  the  general  body  politic. 

When  the  new  department  government  was  organ- 
ized on  January  1,  1914,  the  governor,  the  secretary, 
Edward  Bowditch,  Junior,  the  attorney,  William  M. 
Connor,  Junior,  the  engineer,  H.  F.  Cameron,  the  Su- 
perintendent of  Schools,  C.  E.  Cameron,  and  the  health 
officer  were  all  Americans,  the  last-named  being  the 
brilliant  and  efficient  Major  E.  L.  Munson  of  the  Army 
Medical  Corps,  who  was  soon  relieved  for  wider  work 
with  the  Insular  Government.  A  year  later,  on  Jan- 
uary 1,  1915,  Governor  Carpenter's  organization  con- 
sisted of  a  Filipino  secretary,  Isidro  Vamenta,  a  Fil- 
ipino attorney,  Ponciano  Reyes,  a  Filipino  delegate 
(deputy  governor),  Doroteo  Karagdag,  and  a  Filipino 
health  officer,  Jacobo  Fajardo.  The  administration  of 
the  schools  and  public  works  had  been  transferred  to 
the  Insular  Government  under  the  new  code. 

On  September  1,  1914,  the  new  code  was  put  into 
effect,  and  the  new  provincial  government  of  Zam- 
boanga  installed  with  a  Christian  Filipino  as  provin- 
cial governor,  an  American  as  secretary-treasurer,  and 
a  Mohammedan  as  third  member.  At  the  same  time  a 
Moro  was  made  third  member  of  the  Provincial  Board 
of  Cotabato.    These  were  the  first  high  offices  given 


116     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

to  Mohammedans,  and  they  were  thoroughly  appreci- 
ated by  the  leaders  of  that  faith  as  an  evidence  of  the 
" square  deal."  Americans  were  then  governors  of 
the  provinces  of  Sulu,  Cotabato,  and  Lanao  (the  Moro 
provinces),  and  Filipinos  as  governors  of  Agusan, 
Bukidnon,  Davao,  and  Zamboanga,  only  the  last  men- 
tioned containing  any  large  Moro  population.  The 
21  organized  municipalities  and  178  municipal  districts 
of  the  department  had  generally  Christian  Filipinos, 
Mohammedans,  or  pagans  as  presidents. 

Governor  Carpenter  stated  in  his  annual  report  for 
the  year  1914: 

The  Mohammedans  are  beginning  to  realize  that  the  Chris- 
tian Filipinos  holding  government  offices  are  rather  devoting 
their  time  to  the  fulfilment  of  their  duties  for  the  benefit  and 
welfare  of  all  the  inhabitants  under  their  control,  regardless 
of  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  latter.  .  .  . 

This  was  the  opening  wedge  in  the  campaign  to  win 
the  confidence  and  cooperation  of  the  Mohammedans 
for  the  Christian  Filipinos.  In  the  course  of  six  or 
seven  years  the  whole  of  the  Department  of  Mindanao 
and  Sulu  was  gradually  placed  under  Filipino  officials, 
from  the  acting  department  governor  down  to  the  hun- 
dreds of  teachers,  except  for  the  local  chief  of  con- 
stabulary, Colonel  Waloe,  the  department  superintend- 
ant  of  schools,  Mr.  Moore,  and  the  Governor  of  Jolo, 
Paul  Rogers.  The  last-named  had  married  a  Moro 
lady  of  high  rank  and  much  personal  charm  and  edu- 
cation, and  during  the  last  year  of  my  administration 
he  kept  pressing  me  for  permission  to  retire  from  the 
service,  to  go  into  business  in  Jolo.  I  persuaded  him 
to  stay  as  long  as  I  did,  because  it  could  be  truthfully 
said  that  there  was  real  peace  in  Jolo  under  Governor 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  MOROLAND  117 

Rogers  for  the  first  time  in  generations !  During  all 
these  years  of  Governor  Carpenter's  administration 
no  violence  was  offered  to  a  single  Filipino  official 
throughout  the  department,  except  that  several  con- 
stabulary officers  were  killed  or  wounded  in  appre- 
hending outlaws.  The  most  dangerous  district  of  the 
Moro  regions  to-day,  potentially,  is  Lanao,  where  the 
vast  regions  of  the  interior  offer  an  easy  avenue  of 
escape  to  disturbers  of  the  peace.  The  datos  of  that 
region  are  proud  and  may  at  any  moment  become 
turbulent.  The  present  Governor  of  Lanao,  Captain 
Santos,  a  young  Filipino  constabulary  officer,  is  cool, 
intrepid,  tactful,  and  vigilant.  No  better  man  could 
be  found  for  that  position. 

Of  Governor  Carpenter's  chief  lieutenants  in  the 
work  of  civilization  and  organized  government,  besides 
those  already  named,  special  mention  should  be  made 
of  Captain  Allen  S.  Fletcher,  of  the  Scouts,  who  dur- 
ing 1914-15  controlled  the  almost  unexplored  regions 
between  Lanao  and  Cotabato;  Henry  Gilsheuser,  ex- 
colonel  of  Constabulary,  former  Governor  of  Lanao 
and  now  in  business  there;  C.  B.  Carter,  ex-major  of 
constabulary  and  Governor  of  Cotabato,  retired;  Ex- 
Governor  Posadas  of  Zamboanga,  now  Deputy  Col- 
lector of  Internal  Revenue  in  Manila ;  Colonel  Waloe, 
the  wise  and  kind  local  chief  of  constabulary  since 
1917 ;  W.  S.  Coverston,  in  his  turn  Governor  of  Lanao ; 
and  Ex-Governor  Teopisto  Guingona  of  Agusan,  for 
years  Governor  Carpenter's  chief  deputy  and  acting 
governor  in  his  place,  a  Filipino  of  extraordinary 
field  ability,  an  incessant  traveler,  of  keen  powers  of 
understanding  and  prompt  decision.    Mr.  Guingona  is 


118     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

now  a  senator  in  the  Philippine  Legislature  for  the 
Moro  regions. 

The  permanent  policy  for  the  future  is  to  turn  the 
local  governments  in  the  Moro  regions  over  to  the 
Moros  themselves  just  as  quickly  as  fit  instruments 
for  administration  are  educated  and  developed  among 
them.  Young  Mohammedans  are  rapidly  coming  on 
through  the  public  schools  and  will  soon  be  ready  for 
responsible  positions.  The  Moros  themselves  recog- 
nize their  lack  of  training  for  modern,  democratic  gov- 
ernment. Their  representatives  in  the  Legislature 
have  not  taken  an  active  part  there.  Senator  Hadji 
Butu  and  Representatives  Dato  Benito,  Dato  Tampu- 
gaw,  and  Dato  Piang  regard  their  residence  in  Manila 
during  the  sessions  as  a  sort  of  exile.  I  remember 
seeing  Dato  Piang,  the  powerful  "boss"  of  Cota- 
bato  Valley,  sitting  one  afternoon  at  the  window  of  his 
residence  in  Manila.  His  old  face  was  expressive  of 
unhappy  longing  for  his  wide  rice-fields  and  herds  of 
carabao  in  the  Cotabato  Valley.  To  these  older  men 
the  "Manila  Government"  is  something  far  away  from 
the  needs  and  realities  of  everyday  Moro  life!  They 
have,  however,  a  wholesome  respect  and  admiration 
for  their  young  men  who  are  educated  in  the  American 
school  system.  Behind  all  their  self-assertion  there 
is  a  safe  and  sane  understanding  that  their  followers 
must  perforce  forever  abandon  the  old  life  of  inces- 
sant warfare,  and  that  now  the  only  way  for  them  to 
protect  their  rights  is  to  square  themselves  with  mod- 
ern conditions  and  a  modern  system  of  government. 

Governor  Carpenter's  "personally  conducted"  an- 
nual tours  of  Moro  chieftains  to  Manila  have  worked 
a  wonderful  change  in  their  comprehension  of  the 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  MOROLAND  119 

powers  and  resources  of  the  Philippine  Government.  It 
has  also  brought  to  them  a  secret  sense  of  embarrass- 
ment and  a  desire  for  the  education  which  will  bring 
them  social  ease  and  equality. 

The  department  government  founded  an  agricultural 
colony  in  the  wide  and  fertile  valley  of  the  Cotabato, 
and  transported  there  steamer-loads  of  emigrants 
from  the  Visayas.  There  are  about  three  thousand 
Mohammedans  and  twenty-five  hundred  Christians 
now  living  in  peace  and  order  in  this  colony,  competing 
side  by  side  in  the  growing  of  rice.  In  1918  the  Gov- 
ernment brought  twelve  thousand  Christian  immi- 
grants into  Mindanao. 

During  1918-20  Governor  Carpenter  was  detained 
in  Manila  a  great  part  of  the  time  by  his  duties  as  head 
of  the  Bureau  of  non-Christian  tribes,  and  Teopisto 
Guingona  was  generally  in  charge  of  the  department, 
as  acting  governor.  By  that  time,  it  will  be  observed, 
almost  all  the  instruments  of  administration  in  active 
contact  with  the  Mohammedan  population  were  Chris- 
tian Filipinos,  and  the  transition  had  been  accepted 
by  the  followers  of  Islam  with  good-humored  acquies- 
cence. 

I  have  before  me  a  statement  made  on  February  28, 
1920,  before  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  by  Senator 
Hadji  Butu,  for  twenty  years  the  Prime  Minister  of  the 
Sultan  of  Sulu.  He  says: 

I  can  assure  you  that  the  people  of  Sulu  are  entirely  satis- 
fied with  the  actual  state  of  affairs  and  always  will  be  so  if 
the  government  of  Sulu  should  be  entrusted  to  Filipino  hands. 
Those  of  Sulu  prefer  that  the  governor  of  the  province  should 
be  a  Filipino,  because  if  a  Moro  were  nominated  he  might  he 
partial  in  his  administration.  My  people  wish  for  and  are  in 
conformity  with  independence  [of  the  Philippines],  and  when 


120     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

that  is  conceded,  I  can  assure  yon  that  nothing  will  happen 
between  the  Moros  and  the  Christians,  not  only  now  while  the 
majority  of  the  Moro  race  is  uncivilized,  but  also  when  the 
Moros  shall  have  embraced  civilization. 

He  then  suggests  that  whenever  a  Christian  Filipino 
is  made  governor  of  a  Moro  province,  the  secretary 
should  be  a  Moro,  and,  vice  versa,  when  a  Moro  is  gov- 
ernor, there  should  be  a  Christian  as  secretary.  This 
quotation  is  offered  as  showing  how  far,  in  six  years, 
the  good-will  and  understanding  between  the  Moros 
and  their  Christian  fellow-Filipinos  had  proceeded. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  no  exigencies  of  American  pol- 
itics in  the  future  may  be  found  as  a  reason  for  reviv- 
ing the  distrust  and  antagonism  of  past  years  between 
the  two  peoples. 

From  time  to  time  delegations  of  their  datos  came 
to  Manila  to  see  for  themselves  what  was  going  on 
there.  One  such  party  came  after  the  passage  of  the 
Jones  Act  by  Congress  in  1916,  when  the  air  was 
resounding  with  vivas  because  self-government  by  the 
Filipinos  had  been  installed  throughout  the  archipel- 
ago. The  datos  came  in  some  perturbation,  but  their 
anxiety  was  merely  to  know  whether  or  not  their  re- 
ligion was  to  be  interfered  with,  and  they  went  back 
to  the  southern  islands  completely  reassured. 

The  Jones  Act  provided  for  the  appointment  by  the 
governor-general  of  two  senators  and  nine  representa- 
tives to  represent  those  non-Christian  territories  not 
yet  considered  sufficiently  advanced  for  general  elec- 
tions. The  idea  of  the  Secretary  of  War  was  that  I 
should  appoint  "persons  in  my  confidence"  to  these 
posts,  but  I  thought  it  wiser  to  give  recognition  where 
possible  to  the  non-Christians  themselves.     Among 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  MOROLAND  121 

those  appointed  were  Senator  Hadji  Butu,  and  Datos 
Piang  of  Cotabato  and  Benito  of  Lanao.  They  were 
allowed  by  the  Legislature  to  take  the  oath  of  office 
upon  the  Koran,  which  was  considered  by  their  con- 
stituents a  very  significant  concession.  In  fact,  all 
visiting  Moros  in  Manila  during  these  years  were 
treated  with  marked  consideration  and  hospitality  by 
the  Christian  Filipino  leaders,  and  the  suspicions  and 
hostility  of  former  years  were  gradually  being  re- 
placed by  mutual  good-will  and  confidence.  How  sig- 
nificant the  change  is  can  perhaps  be  appreciated  only 
by  those  who  handled  this  problem  during  the  earlier 
days  of  conflict  and  distrust  between  the  adherents  of 
the  two  religions. 

Governor  Carpenter's  last  report  as  Governor  of 
the  Department  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu,  written  on 
March  26,  1918,  concludes  with  the  following'  epilogue, 
which  should  be,  and  is,  adopted  by  those  who  control 
affairs  in  the  Philippines  as  a  part  of  their  political 
creed : 

Law  and  order  now  obtain  throughout  Mohammedan  Philip- 
pine territory,  but  popular  compliance  and  cooperation  are  as 
yet  only  tentative  and  easily  lost.  They  may  be  firmly  estab- 
lished only  in  the  course  of  time  and  by  constancy  in  the 
present  policies  of  responsible  authorities  in  Manila,  consci- 
entiously and  correctly  executed  by  local  officers  who  establish 
themselves  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  through  invariable 
kindness,  respect  for  local  customs,  religious  ceremonies,  and 
faith,  absolute  honesty,  and  justice  in  both  official  and  private 
relations.  Neither  Mohammedan  nor  pagan  Filipino  has 
national  thought  or  ideals.  They  are  now  yielding  to  a  policy 
of  attraction  directed  at  them  as  substantive  Filipinos,  and  if 
they  do  not  come  directly  into  increasing  and  eventual  abso- 
lute homogeneity  with  the  highly  civilized  Filipino  type  the 
fault  will  be  of  the  latter.  The  more  intelligent  leaders  of 
these  Mohammedans  and  pagans  have  a  glimmer  of  light  as 


122     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

to  the  advantages  and  necessity  for  unity  on  a  more  compre- 
hensive basis,  without  religious  distinctions,  approximating 
national  existence. 

Before  me  as  I  write  lies  a  beautiful  dagger,  with 
ivory  handle  and  scabbard  of  gold-and-silver  work- 
manship, one  of  the  best  examples  of  Moro  art.  On  it 
Governor  Carpenter  has  had  inscribed.  "  .  .  .  the 
deadly  weapons  of  the  Mindanao  and  Sulu  Moros  have 
become  mere  souvenirs."  I  hope  he  may  prove  as 
sage  as  a  prophet  as  he  is  as  an  administrator.  At 
least  the  foundation  is  laid,  and  the  Filipinos  them- 
selves must  build  upon  it.  With  tact  and  wisdom  such 
as  they  have  already  shown,  the  "Moro  problem"  may 
be  permanently  solved.  Although  sporadic  local  dis- 
turbances may  at  any  time  occur  in  Lanao  or  Sulu,  or 
in  the  islands  to  the  south,  no  general  uprising  of  the 
Moros  is  to  be  expected.  To  bring  that  about,  a  policy 
of  incredible  foolishness  is  needed.  They  are  to-day 
better  off  than  they  have  ever  been  before ;  freed  from 
the  internecine  warfare  of  the  past,  and  from  the 
tyranny  and  abuse  of  their  own  chieftains,  Mindanao 
and  Sulu  have  entered  upon  a  real  era  of  agricultural 
and  educational  development. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Hill  Tribes  of  Luzon 

OUTSIDE  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu,  the  principal 
center  of  non-Christian  population  is  in  the 
mountain  range  running  from  north  to  south  of  Luzon 
like  a  backbone.  According  to  the  census  of  1918,  there 
were  some  250,000  pagans  *  scattered  throughout  this 
region,  principally  in  the  Mountain  Province.  They 
were  under  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the  Philippine 
Commission  until  the  Jones  Law  of  August  29,  1916, 
gave  complete  control  to  both  houses  of  the  Legisla- 
ture. The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  is  administratively 
in  charge,  though  in  1917  the  Bureau  of  non-Christian 
Tribes  was,  by  direction  of  the  Jones  Law,  reestab- 
lished in  his  office.  Scattered  groups  of  non-Christians, 
chiefly  Negritos,  about  nine  thousand  in  number,  live 
in  the  mountains  of  Zambales,  Tarlac,  and  Bataan  on 
the  west  coast  of  Luzon, — the  first  land  sighted  by 
travelers  approaching  Manila  from  Japan  or  Hong- 
Kong.  Another  group  of  13,044,  roughly  classed  as 
Mangyans,  live  in  the  island  of  Mindoro,  directly  south 
of  Manila. 

The  pagans  of  Luzon  are  of  intense  interest  to  the 
ethnologist  and  anthropologist.  Politically,  their  sit- 
uation has  been  frequently  used  in  argument  by  those 
Americans  who  were  campaigning  against  Philippine 

1  According  to  the  Philippine  census  for  1920,  the  pagans  of  the  islands 
number,  in  all,  437,622. 

123 


124     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

independence,  in  an  effort  to  prove  that  the  Filipinos 
would  abuse  or  exploit  these  primitive  people  if  put  in 
charge  of  them;  this  argument  was  based  upon  the 
tradition  that  pagans  had  originally  fled  to  the  moun- 
tains to  escape  from  persecution  at  the  hands  of  the 
early  Malay  immigrants,  also  upon  cases  of  individual 
ill-treatment  and  exploitation  by  Spanish,  Filipino, 
and  Chinese  merchants  and  contractors  in  later  times. 
The  response  of  Congress  to  these  arguments  was  to 
give,  in  the  Jones  Act,  the  control  of  these  peoples, 
together  with  that  of  all  the  non-Christians  of  the  Phil- 
ippines, over  to  the  Philippine  Legislature.  A  Fil- 
ipino Secretary  of  the  Interior  has  been  in  adminis- 
trative charge  of  their  affairs  since  October,  1916,  first 
Eafael  Palma,  and  during  the  last  year,  Teodoro 
Kalaw.  The  Bureau  of  non-Christian  Tribes  was,  after 
1917,  presided  over  by  Frank  W.  Carpenter,  in  ad- 
dition to  his  duties  as  Governor  of  the  Department 
of  Mindanao  and  Sulu,  until  in  1920  he  became  chair- 
man of  the  Finance  Commission  of  the  Government  and 
Teopisto  Guingona  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
bureau. 

The  governors  of  all  the  provinces  concerned  have 
of  late  years  been  Filipinos,  either  elective  or  appoint- 
ive, except  in  the  sub-province  of  Ifugao,  where  Major 
F.  E.  Dossor  of  the  constabulary  still  holds  his  post 
as  governor  with  much  credit.  Until  1914  an  aggres- 
sive effort  was  made  to  keep  the  Filipinos  from  all 
interference  with  or  control  over  these  pagans  of  the 
mountains,  and  to  accentuate  in  every  way  possible 
the  separation  of  the  races.  Territorial  changes  were 
even  made,  taking  away  strips  of  land  from  organized 
Christian  provinces,  to  give  to  the  Mountain  Province 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OF  LUZON  125 

access  to  the  seas  to  the  north  and  west,  after  the 
fashion  of  empire-builders  in  Europe.  "Whether  or  not 
it  was  hoped  by  this  means  to  secure  a  final  separation 
of  these  portions  of  Luzon  from  an  independent  Phil- 
ippines is  not  known.  The  Americans  in  charge,  in 
these  days  under  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  have 
accomplished  a  truly  great  work  in  the  pacification  and 
conciliation  of  these  hill  people;  for  the  first  time  in 
history  inter-tribal  warfare  has  been  stopped,  and  the 
mountains  have  been  opened  up  to  travel  and  develop- 
ment. This  is  one  of  the  chief  points  of  interest  to 
traveling  Japanese  officials,  who  have  utterly  failed 
to  deal  successfully  with  the  similar  wild  tribes  of  the 
island  of  Formosa,  where  their  policy  seems  to  be  one 
of  extermination. 

The  Philippine  administration  had  succeeded  in 
winning  the  confidence  of  the  pagans  of  the  Mountain 
Province  and  establishing  order  throughout  hereto- 
fore inaccessible  regions.  At  that  point,  apparently, 
a  balance  had  been  struck  and  the  status  quo  main- 
tained, except  for  the  further  extension  of  trails  and 
some  impulse  given  to  better  agriculture.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1914,  there  were  but  3205  pupils  in  the  public 
schools  among  this  population  of  a  quarter  of  a  mil- 
lion. A  tendency  had  appeared  to  maintain  the  moun- 
tain tribes  like  ethnological  specimens  in  a  vast  reserve 
or  like  an  interesting  anthropological  collection  within 
a  glass  case.  The  pagans,  however,  were  by  1914  ready 
to  receive  gradual  instruction  in  the  modern  spirit  of 
cooperation  with  their  fellow-man,  and  to  learn  by 
contact  with  the  Filipino  that  under  the  new  order  of 
things  the  timidity,  suspicion,  and  ill-feeling  of  past 
centuries  were  dead  and  buried.    To  be  sure,  the  outer 


126     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

fringes  of  the  pagan  population,  such  as  the  Tinggians 
of  Abra  and  Ibanags  and  Gaddangs  of  Isabela,  had 
during  recent  generations  become  partially  absorbed 
in  the  surrounding  Filipino  Christian  populations,  and 
in  such  cases  individuals  of  tjie  two  or  three  different 
strains  of  blood  can  scarcely  be  told  apart;  indeed, 
several  of  the  most  distinguished  officials  to-day  in 
the  insular  service  are  the  grandsons  of  these  former 
"wild  men."  The  time  had  now  arrived  to  train  the 
mountaineers  for  gradual  participation  in  the  main 
body  of  Philippine  citizenship.  While  no  attempt  at 
actual  assimilation  has  ever  been  made  by  the  Govern- 
ment, it  is  believed  that  in  the  course  of  time  this  will 
come  to  pass  naturally  and  without  compulsion  or 
injustice.  The  premature  forcing  of  modern  standards 
upon  backward  peoples  has  in  other  parts  of  the  world 
often  resulted  in  their  utter  destruction.  At  all  events, 
the  history  of  the  past  seven  years  has  shown  that  the 
Filipinos  can  and  do  manage  the  destinies  of  the  moun- 
tain tribes  with  generosity  and  conscientious  consid- 
eration. They  have  a  keen  sense  of  responsibility 
toward  their  wards.  The  annual  report  for  1915  of 
Secretary  Palma  is  an  admirable  program  of  the  best 
Filipino  thought  upon  this  problem.  He  sincerely 
regards  his  less  fortunate  fellow-men  as  brothers,  as, 
indeed,  I  have  more  than  once  heard  him  address  them 
at  conferences  in  the  mountains. 

The  writings  of  Professor  H.  Otley  Beyer  of  the 
University  of  the  Philippines,  who  prepared  himself 
for  his  work  by  six  years  of  residence  among  the 
Ifugaos,  are  the  best  scientific  statements  we  have 
of  the  ethnological  classifications  of  the  mountain  tribes 
of  the  Philippines.    His  point  of  view  is  one  of  sym- 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OF  LUZON  127 

pathy  with  these  people,  and  of  a  recognition  of  the 
natural  dignity  of  man.  We  have  had  too  much  neglect 
by  scientists  generally  of  the  fundamental  and  essential 
resemblances  of  human  beings  in  different  strata  of 
civilization.  An  amusing  parody  might  be  written  by 
an  educated  Igorot  upon  the  peculiarities  of  the  white 
races ;  it  would  assist  us  to  see  ourselves  as  others  see 
us,  not  as  we  think  we  are.  Modern  differences  be- 
tween races  may  some  day  be  scientifically  analyzed 
and  grouped  according  to  geography,  or  climate,  or 
environment.  The  North  American  Indians,  for  ex- 
ample, before  the  coming  of  the  white  man  never 
founded  what  we  could  call  a  civilized  state.  How  much 
of  this  failure  was  due  to  the  absence  of  iron  tools 
and  domestic  animals?  And  how  many  Americans  to- 
day would  deny  the  Indian  the  capacity  for  civilization, 
or  would  be  ashamed  of  a  strain  of  Indian  blood  in  his 
own  veins?  It  has  been  shown,  beyond  doubt,  that  the 
non-Christian  tribes  of  central  Luzon  are  susceptible 
of  training  along  modern  lines,  and  capable  of  intelli- 
gently considering  and  debating  their  own  future 
status.  These  men  are,  however,  of  a  semi-civilized 
type ;  the  only  true  wild  men  of  the  Philippines  are  the 
Negritos,  the  dwarf  race  which  lives  in  scattered  family 
groups  in  the  deep  forests,  and  of  whom  mention  will 
be  made  later. 

The  Igorots,  Bontocs,  Ifugaos,  Ilongotes,  Kalingas, 
and  Apayaos  of  the  Mountain  Province  may  be  gen- 
erally classed  as  Indonesians.  Their  ancestors  came 
to  Luzon  from  the 'mainland  at  some  unknown  period 
in  the  past,  possibly  soon  after  the  land  masses  partial- 
ly subsided  and  left  the  present  islands  off  the  coast 
of  southeastern  Asia.    Many  of  them  mixed  with  the 


128     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Negritos  and  later  with  the  Malays  when  they  arrived, 
as  is  shown  by  the  shorter,  darker,  more  Mongoloid 
types  familiar  among  the  Bontocs  and  Igorots  of 
Benguet.  Others,  again,  have  rather  light  skin  and 
aquiline  noses,  evidently  being  a  purer  Indonesian 
type.  Among  these,  the  average  stature  is  about  five 
feet,  nine  inches ;  white  men  over  six  feet  in  height  are 
not  unusual.  In  the  course  of  time  they  developed  a 
somewhat  general  culture  of  their  own,  but  little  af- 
fected by  outsiders,  to  whom,  indeed  they  were  hostile. 
The  Chinese  merchants  are  the  only  ones  who  seem  to 
have  penetrated  into  the  high  valleys  of  the  interior, 
and  left  behind  some  impress  of  their  fashions  and 
manners.  The  pagan  culture  is  in  some  ways  very 
peculiar,  but  many  groups  of  these  people  to-day  are 
but  little  behind  their  Malay  neighbors  in  civilization. 
The  Indonesian  culture  and  dialects  are  similar  in 
all  the  groups.  It  is  difficult  to  generalize  about  their 
manners  and  customs,  for  each  group  has  its  own 
characteristics,  traceable  back  into  the  remote  past, 
and  all  groups  now  shade  off  into  the  culture  of  their 
Christian  neighbors  of  the  lowlands.  As  a  type  of 
them  all,  mention  might  be  made  of  the  largest  group, 
the  Ifugaos,  who  have  a  culture  of  high  development 
but  little  influenced  from  outside  during  recent  cen- 
turies. They  have  met  the  problem  of  agriculture  upon 
the  hills  with  their  wonderful  terraced  and  irrigated 
rice-fields,  which  extend  thousands  of  feet  up  the  steep 
slopes.  The  Ifugao  stone-faced  walls  for  rice-cul- 
tivation would,  if  placed  end  to  end,  total  twelve  thou- 
sand miles,  reaching  half-way  around  the  world,  and 
the  Ifugao  population  numbers  only  about  sixty  thou- 
sand.    The    same   form   of   terrace-agriculture   was 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OF  LUZON  129 

adopted  by  the  Incas  in  Peru,  and  may  be  found  to-day 
in  southern  China  and  northern  India,  as  well  as  in 
Italy,  on  a  much  smaller  scale.  The  Ifugaos  developed 
weaving,  wood-carving,  and  basket-making,  and  had  a 
system  of  private  ownership  of  real  property,  and  a 
strong  sense  of  personal  dignity,  with  equal  rights  for 
both  sexes. 

Among  the  Benguets  gold-  and  copper-mining  and 
smelting  were  extensively  carried  on.  Indeed,  at  the 
time  of  the  Spanish  invasion  of  the  Philippines,  these 
Indonesians  in  the  mountains  were  probably  living  in 
a  state  of  civilization  very  similar  to  that  which  Pizarro 
discovered  among  the  Incas  of  Peru.  That  the  Spanish 
did  not  destroy  the  culture  of  the  Provincia  Montdnosa 
in  Luzon  was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  never  conquered 
it,  and  rarely  did  individuals  dare  even  to  enter  it.  A 
few  priests,  like  the  devoted  Father  Villaverde,  a  few 
garrisons  of  soldiers  in  the  foot-hills  to  stop  deprada- 
tions  from  above, — that  was  all.  When  the  Frenchman 
La  Gironiere  in  1830,  after  the  death  of  his  adored 
Spanish  wife  at  Jalajala  on  Laguna  de  Bay,  plunged 
into  the  wilderness  to  forget  his  sorrows,  his  life  was 
hardly  worth  the  snapping  of  a  twig;  near  the  spot 
where  the  government  building  now  stands  at  Bontoc, 
he  states,  he  was  forced  to  drink,  with  the  victorious 
head-hunters  of  that  village,  a  mixture  of  human  brains 
from  a  cocoanut-shell.  This  is  the  nearest  approach 
to  cannibalism  of  which  there  is  any  record  in  the 
Philippines. 

The  Indonesians  may  have  originally  taken  to  the 
mountain  ranges  of  Luzon  to  escape  from  the  better- 
armed  Malays  along  the  coasts.  It  is  doubtful  if  their 
population  has  ever  been  substantially  larger  than  it  is 


130     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

to-day.  There  is  not  food  enough  in  the  Mountain 
Province  to  sustain  the  present  inhabitants.  Twice  the 
Ifugaos  have  settled  on  the  lower  levels  of  the  Magat 
River,  and  abandoned  the  attempt  because  disease 
wiped  them  out.  To-day,  they  cannot  be  persuaded  to 
colonize  the  lowlands;  they  fear  death  if  they  settle 
outside  their  beloved  mountains. 

Many  a  brush  between  the  mountaineers  and  the  con- 
stabulary occurred  in  the  years  1900-13;  there  were 
many  tedious  days  of  cautious  approach  over  trails  set 
with  poisoned  bamboo;  many  a  rush  from  warriors 
armed  with  long  spears  and  bows  and  arrows, — stoical 
men  who  when  wounded  and  captured  could  watch  with 
a  smile  the  amputation  of  a  hopelessly  maimed  limb. 

In  the  spring  of  1914  I  watched  the  Ifugao  school- 
boys at  Kiangan  playing  volley-ball  in  the  field  beside 
the  splendid  stone  school-house  they  had  built  them- 
selves. When  either  side  scored  a  point,  that  team 
leapt  forward  with  extended  hand  and  gave  the  deep- 
throated  war-cry  of  their  fathers.  Less  than  a  decade 
before  the  same  cry  had  often  struck  terror  through 
these  valleys.  In  1913  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
had  been  attacked  on  the  Campote  trail  by  the  Ilon- 
gotes;  in  1914  our  party  went  unmolested  over  the 
same  trail,  and  the  sole  unfavorable  sign  was  that  only 
the  women  and  younger  men  attended  the  canao  and 
athletic  games;  the  older  men  had  retreated  to  the 
forest  above  in  fear  of  punishment  for  the  demonstra- 
tion of  the  year  before.  In  1916  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior  reported  that  no  attack  had  been  made  for 
several  years  upon  any  American  or  .Filipino  by  the 
mountaineers. 

The  fact  is  that  timidity  was  the  chief  reason  for  at- 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OP  LUZON  131 

tacks  by  the  "wild  men"  upon  the  invading  whites. 
As  soon  as  they  learned  that  no  wrong  was  intended, 
that  justice  and  absolute  honesty  in  the  keeping  of 
promises  and  in  payment  for  services  rendered  were 
the  order  of  the  new  day,  their  hostility  vanished  like 
mists    before    the    sun.      The    hardest    task    of   the 
United  States  Government  was  not  to  make  friends 
with  them,  but  to  stop  their  head-hunting  raids  upon 
one  another.    Prolonged  public  meetings  were  held  at 
which  each  chief  had  his  say,  and  an  agreement  was 
finally  reached  which  settled  the  important  question. 
This  shows  how  easy  it  would  have  been  for  the  Ameri- 
can colonials  to  make  friends  with  the  Indians, — as, 
indeed,  it  was  for  our  Pennsylvania  Quakers.     But 
our  great-grandfathers  were  bent  upon  despoiling  the 
Indians  of  their  lands.    They  adopted  the  maxim  that 
"The  best  Indian  is  the  dead  Indian."     A  similar 
maxim  has  been  adopted  by  the  Japanese  in  Formosa, 
That  we  have  been  able  in  Luzon  to  establish  a  new, 
high  standard  for  dealing  with  backward  peoples  is 
due  not  only  to  the  latter-day  general  spread  of  more 
humane  ideas  through  the  world,  but  also  to  the  special 
efforts  of  reformers  such  as  those  who  gather  in  annual 
conference  at  Lake  Mohonk,  New  York.    Much  of  the 
improvement  may  be  due,  also,  to  the  separation  of 
Church  and  State  in  modern  nations.    The  excuse  of 
earlier  white  conquerors  for  the  extermination  of  whole 
nations  of  primitive  peoples,  as  in  the  Caribbean,  in 
Tasmania,  in  South  Africa,  and  in  Newfoundland,  was 
that  these  people  were  not  Christians,  and  so  had  no 
souls  and  did  not  matter.    A  similar  attitude  of  cruelty 
to  domestic  animals  survives  to-day  in  the  most  church- 
ridden  countries  of  Europe. 


132     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

In  dealing  with  backward  peoples,  the  first  and  only- 
safe  rule  of  conduct  is  to  be  chary  of  promises,  and, 
a  promise  once  given,  never  to  break  your  word.  Prim- 
itive men  surviving  in  the  world  to-day  would  have  no 
toleration  for  the  easily  given  and  quickly  broken 
promises  made  by  statesmen  at  election  time  in  the 
civilized  countries.  It  is  not  clear  whether  this  insist- 
ence upon  the  sanctity  of  a  promise  is  the  inherent 
sense  of  honor  of  natural  man,  or  whether  it  is  neces- 
sary in  a  community  where  the  law  is  more  or  less  in 
the  hands  of  each  individual.  At  Bontoc  there  is  a 
handsome  prison,  built  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment for  prisoners  of  the  mountain  races.  It  had  been 
found  that  such  men,  if  incarcerated  in  the  lowlands, 
soon  died  of  homesickness.  Indeed,  it  has  even  been 
found  necessary,  in  the  case  of  long-term  prisoners  at 
Bontoc,  to  grant  a  "leave  of  absence"  for  two  weeks 
every  year,  so  that  they  may  go  home  to  visit  their 
families.  Such  a  prisoner,  his  word  once  given,  never 
fails  to  reappear  at  the  prison  on  the  appointed  day, 
even  if  that  involves  a  three-days'  journey  through 
tempests,  and  the  hazardous  swimming  of  mountain 
torrents,  in  flood-time. 

There  are  comparatively  few  criminal  cases  among 
these  people  to-day.  A  curious  illustration  of  their 
sense  of  morality  and  the  sternness  of  the  enforcement 
of  their  own  code  came  to  me  on  a  journey  through 
Benguet  at  Christmas  time  in  1913.  At  the  rest-house 
at  Kilometer  59,  on  the  Baguio  North  Trail,  a  wrinkled 
old  woman  was  sitting  patiently  in  the  rain  beside  the 
door.  She  had  come  to  petition  for  the  pardon  of  her 
husband  and  two  sons,  who  were  serving  a  life-sentence 
in  Bontoc  prison* for  the  murder  of  her  daughter.    She 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OF  LUZON  133 

insisted  that  they  were  not  guilty,  and  stated  as 
proof  of  the  fact  that  they  were  all  three  crying  when 
they  returned  from  the  forest  where  the  girl  had 
been  hanged.  Later  investigation  of  the  case  showed 
that  the  girl  had  been  educated  at  Mrs.  Kelly's  school 
at  Bua,  near  Baguio,  and  instead  of  returning  home  to 
the  smoky  hut,  to  labor  in  the  sweet-potato  plantation 
of  her  parents,  had  gone  to  live  with  a  Chinese  at 
Baguio.  According  to  the  Igorot  code,  she  had  com- 
mitted an  offense  punishable  by  death,  and  the  men 
of  her  family  had  gathered  in  council  upon  the  case, 
condemned  her,  and  executed  the  sentence.  They  were 
later  granted  a  conditional  pardon. 

Another  incident  occurred  on  the  east  coast  of  Luzon 
which  was  pitiful  in  its  results.  When  in  camp  near 
Baler  in  1916,  after  a  " powwow"  with  a  band  of  semi- 
civilized  Negritos,  I  had  lectured  them  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  abandoning  the  traditional  state  of  warfare  with 
the  neighboring  Ilongotes  of  the  forests.  The  next 
year,  at  the  same  camp,  the  old  chieftain  appeared  with 
the  sad  story  of  the  massacre  of  his  family  by  the  Ilon- 
gotes. When  I  asked  him  why  the  men  of  his  settle- 
ment had  not  beaten  off  their  assailants,  he  replied 
that  he  had  promised  me  in  the  name  of  his  tribe  not  to 
fight  any  more !  The  subsequent  constabulary  expedi- 
tion and  punishment  of  the  Ilongotes  concerned  hardly 
seemed  an  adequate  reward  for  his  faithfulness. 

Head-hunting  is  a  religious  custom  peculiar  to  the 
non-Christians  of  Luzon  and  Formosa,  to  the  Dyaks  of 
Borneo,  and  the  hill  peoples  of  New  Guinea,  though 
certain  tribes  in  India  are  said  to  practise  it  still.  The 
heads  when  taken  were  dried  and  adorned  the  houses 
of  the  warriors,  like  game  trophies  in  the  homes  of 


134     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

American  millionaires.  As  soon  as  the  mountain  men 
found  that  the  Government  was  determined  to  put  a 
stop  to  this  practice,  the  ' '  trophies ' '  disappeared.  The 
custom  has  been  eradicated  to-day,  and  no  cases  of  the 
taking  of  heads  have  been  reported  by  the  constabulary 
for  several  years  past.  The  chief  reactionaries  in  this 
matter  are  the  old  women,  who  still  preach  in  secret  to 
the  young  men  that  they  are  not  worthy  of  marriage 
until  they  have  taken  at  least  one  head.  They  also 
incite  the  taking  of  a  head  to  break  a  drought,  or, 
again,  in  order  that  some  person  of  importance  may 
rest  quietly  in  his  grave. 

In  1915,  to  lessen  the  danger  of  bloodshed  between 
rival  rancherias  or  settlements,  the  Infugaos  were  per- 
suaded to  abandon  their  spears  when  upon  the  trails. 
The  other  tribes  soon  followed  their  example,  and  to- 
day use  of  the  spear  in  controversies  is  replaced  by 
appeal  for  arbitration,  made  to  the  local  justice  of  the 
peace.  The  mountaineers  have  accepted  the  pax 
Americana  in  good  faith,  and  for  the  past  decade  have 
been  traveling  the  trails  from  valley  to  valley  through- 
out the  province  in  a  way  unknown  in  the  past.  Chris- 
tian Filipinos  from  Ilocos  now  emigrate  in  large  num- 
bers across  the  mountains  to  the  rich  lands  of  the 
Cagayan  Valley,  and  are  quite  unmolested.  Americans 
are  at  all  times  perfectly  safe,  and  ladies  travel  with- 
out escort  for  days  all  over  the  wonderful  system  of 
trails. 

The  journey  on  horseback  through  the  Mountain 
Province  should  be  more  widely  advertised;  it  is  the 
most  interesting  and  beautiful  trip  to  be  taken  in  any 
territory  under  the  American  flag.  Comfortable  rest- 
houses  are  placed  at  intervals  of  thirty  kilometers,  an 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OF  LUZON  135 

easy  journey  for  the  little  ponies ;  on  a  big  American 
horse,  the  distance  of  two  rest-house  periods  a  day 
may  be  comfortably  traveled.  Any  able-bodied  tour- 
ist can  make  the  journey  on  foot  or  on  horseback. 
The  trails  are  excellent,  the  air  cool  and  bracing  at  an 
altitude  of  from  three  thousand  to  eight  thousand 
feet,  the  scenery  gorgeous  beyond  description.  The 
inhabitants  are  amiable  and  hospitable,  and  the  visitor 
coming  suddenly  upon  a  silent  band  of  Ifugaos  or 
Bontocs  single-file  on  the  trail  is  always  greeted  with  a 
smiling  "Good  morning."  The  most  trying  feature 
of  official  trips  throughout  this  region  is  the  necessary 
ceremony  of  the  bubud,  or  drinking  of  the  rice  wine, 
which  is  handed  around  by  the  chief  of  the  village 
in  an  old  beer  bottle  from  which  all  must  drink  without 
glasses  or  cups!  In  official  parties,  the  struggle  for 
precedence  is  here  reversed:  the  most  important  man 
must  drink  first,  so  the  effort  is  to  become  as  unimpor- 
tant as  possible. 

The  absence  of  animal  and  bird  life  along  the  trails 
is  noticeable.  Throughout  long  ages  the  population 
of  the  Mountain  Province  has  been  kept  down  by  the 
restricted  area  under  cultivation ;  they  seem  always  to 
have  lived  up  to  the  utmost  possible  food  supply. 
Birds  and  game  have  but  a  small  chance  with  these 
hungry  tribes;  even  the  mountain  streams  are  bereft 
of  fish.  At  Austin  Pass  in  the  mountains  of  Neuva 
Viscaya,  where  my  gallant  and  generous  friend,  E.  W. 
Austin,  the  district  engineer  of  Neuva  Ecija,  con- 
tracted his  fatal  illness  from  exposure  to  a  four-day 
typhoon,  without  food,  I  noticed  bird-huts  on  the  ridges 
of  the  passes,  where  the  Igorots  trapped  birds  at  night 


136     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

with  the  use  of  a  light,  as  the  Italians  do  their  song- 
birds. 

The  camao,  or  feast,  is  the  usual  preliminary  to  con- 
ferences and  a  feature  of  all  official  visits  in  the  moun- 
tains. Sometimes  several  thousand  mountaineers 
gather  from  all  directions ;  as  many  as  fifty-five  cara- 
baos  or  buffaloes  were  killed  at  one  feast  in  Bontoc 
in  1913.  The  carabaos  are  not  used  as  work  animals 
generally  by  the  Igorots,  but  the  practice  of  killing 
them  for  feasts  is  wasteful,  and  is  discouraged  by  the 
Government.  An  immense  amount  of  energy  is  dis- 
played by  the  natives  in  dancing  in  a  circle  around  the 
camp  fire  to  the  monotonous  sound  of  the  gansa  or 
Chinese  gong.  All  night  long,  and  well  into  the  next 
night  the  beating  of  the  gansa  keeps  up,  accompanied 
by  mournful  chanting  and  much  drinking  of  bubud, 
brought  in  carefully  preserved  antique  porcelain  jars. 

Very  few  of  the  non-Christians  of  the  Mountain 
Province  wear  much  clothing:  a  " gee-string' '  or  girdle 
for  the  men,  with  perhaps  a  shirt,  and  a  brief  petti- 
coat for  the  women  suffice ;  in  the  rice-paddies  and  in 
the  more  remote  stations  even  these  scanty  garments 
are  dispensed  with.  The  virtual  nakedness  of  these 
people  is  a  source  of  much  chagrin  to  the  more  civilized 
inhabitants  of  the  islands.  They  have  been,  of  course, 
widely  photographed  and  advertised,  and  shown  in 
various  countries  as  examples  of  the  "  Filipinos. ■ ' 
Seventeen  years  of  effort  have  not  served  to  remove 
from  the  minds  of  those  Americans  who  visited  the 
1 '  dog-eating  Igorots ' '  at  the  St.  Louis  Exposition,  the 
impression  that  these  were  the  average  Filipinos.  The 
dog  market  in  Baguio  on  Sunday  mornings  is  a  never- 
ceasing  source  of  interest  and  satisfaction  to  visiting 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OF  LUZON  137 

Americans.  The  eating  of  dogs,  hDwever,  came  from 
the  Chinese;  it  is  in  common  practice  around  Canton 
to-day.  While  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  moun- 
taineers are  dog-eaters,  the  desirability  of  dog  flesh  to 
them  is  due  not  only  to  the  dire  scarcity  of  other  meat, 
but  to  the  fact  that  the  dogs  may  be  led  without  exertion 
from  the  market  to  their  home,  perhaps  two  or  three 
days'  travel  on  foot;  any  one  who  has  ever  tried  to 
drive  a  recalcitrant  pig  will  appreciate  the  difference ! 
The  commonly  circulated  stories  of  cruelty  to  dogs  are 
entirely  without  foundation.  I  heard,  on  the  floor  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  Washington,  a  mem- 
ber who  was  afterward  in  the  cabinet,  and  who  had 
previously  spent  a  few  weeks  in  the  Philippines,  dis- 
miss the  whole  Philippine  question  in  debate  by  a 
sneering  reference  to  the  dog-market  in  Baguio! 

Much  merriment  was  provoked  this  year  by  a  news- 
paper article  which  I  saw  in  both  American  and  French 
newspapers  describing  the  introduction  in  the  Philip- 
pine Legislature  of  a  bill  by  Senator  Lope  K.  Santos, 
formerly  Governor  of  Nueva  Viscaya,  alleged  to  be  a 
law  compelling  the  Igorots  to  wear  trousers.  The 
bill,  which  was  not  acted  upon,  really  appropriated 
funds  to  supply  clothing  to  the  mountain  people,  and 
forbade  them  to  enter  the  " government' '  towns  with 
insufficient  clothing.  Major  (afterward  Brigadier- 
General)  E.  L.  Munson,  of  the  United  States  Medical 
Corps,  who  made  a  study  of  this  question  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  Philippine  Government,  reported  that 
the  mountaineers  really  suffer  a  decided  lowering  of 
vitality  from  want  of  sufficient  clothing.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  these  people  would  wear  clothes  if  they 
could  afford  them.    The  sight  of  a  naked  man  is  more 


138     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

and  more  infrequent,  even  in  the  most  remote  localities, 
as  prosperity  increases  from  year  to  year  in  the  Moun- 
tain Province.  I  shall  never  forget  the  suffering  of  a 
Mangyan  who  was  watching  with  me  one  evening  at  a 
point  where  a  tamarao  trail  came  from  the  forest 
at  the  summit  of  Mt.  Calavite  in  Mindoro.  A  gale  of 
wind  had  sprung  up,  accompanied  by  gusts  of  rain. 
All  was  silent,  except  for  the  roar  of  the  wind,  when 
I  happened  to  glance  around  at  my  almost-naked  com- 
panion. He  was  having  a  violent  chill,  his  arms  and 
legs  jerking  like  those  of  a  jumping-jack.  I  really  be- 
lieve that  the  copious  drafts  of  hot  tea  administered 
to  him  beside  the  camp  fire  a  half -hour  later  saved  his 
life.  One  of  our  precious  flannel  shirts  made  a  new 
man  of  him.  And  yet  there  are  those  who  sneer  at 
primitive  man  for  his  nakedness.  It  used  to  be  the 
fashion  in  "civilized"  courts  of  Europe  to  make  fun 
of  the  physical  sufferings  of  cripples  or  idiots!  I 
have  actually  suffered  more,  myself,  from  the  cold  upon 
exposed  mountain  tops  in  the  Philippines  than  in  mid- 
winter in  Quebec. 

The  truly  primitive  man  of  the  Philippines  is  the 
Negrito.  About  seventy  thousand  Negritos  roam  the 
forests  of  the  Philippines.  The  men  are  usually  about 
four  feet,  six  inches  in  height,  and  sometimes  only  three 
feet,  ten  inches.  They  are  evidently  kin  to  the  now  ex- 
tinct bushmen  of  Australia  and  South  Africa,  and  to 
the  Adaman  Islanders.  They  seem  incapable  of  be- 
coming civilized,  and  the  unmixed  types  refuse  to  live 
in  settlements,  preferring'  the  roaming  life  of  the 
forests.  They  have  no  habitations,  and  most  of  them 
are  badly  scarred  from  huddling  to  sleep  around  the 
camp  fire.    They  may  linger  on  for  generations  in  their 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OF  LUZON  139 

forest  reserves,  but  I  fear  the  Government  can  do  little 
for  them,  except  to  see  that  they  are  unmolested. 
Nothing  can  surpass  the  interest  of  a  visit  to  the 
tribes  of  Negritos  on  the  slopes  of  Mariveles,  opposite 
Corregidor.  I  once  spent  several  days  with  about  two 
hundred  of  them,  gathered  together  by  Forester  Diaz, 
in  whom  they  had  absolute  confidence.  I  have  watched 
the  Negritos  at  their  hunting  with  bow  and  arrow  and 
with  the  blow-pipe,  at  their  dancing,  and  at  a  wed- 
ding ceremony.  What  most  impressed  me  was  the 
facility  with  which  they  made  fire  by  rubbing  two 
sticks  together.  It  took  them  only  about  thirty  sec- 
onds to  strike  a  spark,  and  I  have  often  envied  them 
when  trying  in  vain  to  light  a  match  in  a  high  wind. 

To  return  to  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
Indonesians  who  are  generally  classed  together  as  the 
non-Christians  of  the  Mountain  Province:  they  are 
certainly  not  " primitive' '  men;  they  are  " backward 
peoples"  to-day,  but  only  because  of  lack  of  oppor- 
tunity. We  are  giving  them  education,  the  elements  of 
modern  sanitation,  and  a  sense  of  security  in  their 
mountain  home.  There  are  now  many  public  schools 
in  the  province;  the  Church  is  doing  its  share,  espe- 
cially through  the  noble  and  self-sacrificing  efforts  of 
the  Belgian  Mission.  The  Belgians  began  their  work 
in  1907,  and  to-day  have  about  fifty  schools  in  the  moun- 
tains, with  nearly  four  thousand  pupils.  Bishop 
Charles  H.  Brent  of  western  New  York  has  established 
a  Protestant  Episcopal  mission  at  Baguio  and  another 
at  Bontoc. 

It  was  in  1915,  I  think,  that  I  saw  the  recruits  com- 
ing in  for  a  battalion  of  Scouts  at  Camp  John  Hay  in 
Baguio.    They  had  been  brought  on  foot  from  their 


140     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

rice-terraces  in  Ifugao  and  enlisted  as  volunteers  in 
the  United  States  Army.  Many  of  them  were  the  shy- 
est and  "wildest"  type  of  semi-civilized  man;  to-day 
they  are  as  smart  a  body  of  soldiers  as  may  be  found 
anywhere,  prompt,  obedient,  and  with  the  swagger  of 
the  British  Tommy  in  uniform.  Incidentally,  they  are 
the  best  rifle  shots  in  the  army.  For  the  first  few  years 
I  was  in  Manila  I  used  to  hear  the  sound  of  the  gansa 
at  night,  from  the  army  post  across  the  valley ;  now  an 
Ifugao  regimental  brass-band  plays  the  latest  popular 
music  for  the  dances  at  the  Country  Club. 

Among  the  representatives  in  the  Assembly  ap- 
pointed in  1916  were  old  Juan  Carino,  the  Baguio 
Igorot,  and  Rafael  Buluyangan,  the  Ifugao ;  the  moun- 
tain clothes  and  Ifugao  hair-cut  disappeared  in  a  few 
weeks  and  the  two  men  soon  became  entirely  conven- 
tional, though  modest,  participants  in  the  making  of 
general  laws  for  their  country.  A  nephew  of  Juan 
Carino  recently  graduated  at  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  is  now  the  government  medical  officer 
at  Baguio;  incidentally,  he  writes  excellent  English 
and  is  a  contributor  to  current  periodicals.  Many  of 
the  Indonesians  are  serving  under  Filipino  provincial 
officers  as  subordinates,  and  most  of  the  elected 
village  presidents  in  the  Mountain  Province  are  native 
sons  of  the  hills.  To  understand  how  thoroughly  capa- 
ble these  people  are  when  given  a  chance,  one  should 
visit  the  public  school  in  the  Trinidad  Valley  near 
Baguio.  There,  two  American  teachers,  Mr.  Wright 
and  Mr.  Bartholomew,  have  gathered  together  about 
four  hundred  boys  from  all  the  representative  Indo- 
nesian groups.  They  are  taking  not  only  the  ordinary 
public-school  courses  in  English,  but  studying  scien- 


THE  HILL  TRIBES  OF  LUZON  141 

tific  agriculture  as  well.  From  days  spent,  while  shoot- 
ing, with  various  of  these  boys,  I  can  testify  that  they 
are  as  bright  mentally  and  as  responsible  morally  as 
boys  of  their  age  in  any  of  the  principal  countries  of 
the  world.  In  them  lies  the  future  redemption  of  their 
people,  among  whom  they  go  forth  from  each  graduat- 
ing class  to  teach.  I  remember  that  the  best  stenog- 
raphers and  bookkeepers  in  the  school  were  Kalingas, 
whose  forefathers,  with  feathers  in  their  hair  and 
pointed  head-axes  ever  at  hand,  had  been  the  terrors 
of  the  North. 

By  the  appointment  of  Joaquin  Luna  as  governor  of 
the  Mountain  Province  in  1916,  to  succeed  E.  A.  Eck- 
man,  a  Filipino  was  for  the  first  time  put  in  direct 
charge  of  the  province.  Mr.  Luna  comes  of  a  distin- 
guished family,  being  a  brother  of  General  Luna,  the 
greatest  military  leader  of  the  insurrection  against  the 
United  States,  and  of  Juan  Luna,  the  greatest  Filipino 
painter,  who  met  a  tragic  end  in  Paris  after  winning 
recognition  there  and  in  Madrid.  Governor  Luna 
made  an  unqualified  success  of  his  work,  holding  the 
confidence  of  the  mountain  people  and  of  the  Ameri- 
cans as  well.  His  chief  Filipino  lieutenant-governors 
were  Jose  Martinez  and  Juan  Ortegas.  When  Mr.  Luna 
was  appointed  to  the  Senate  to  represent  the  Mountain 
Province,  Dr.  Aquilino  Calvo,  former  Governor  of 
Pangasinan,  and  later  elected  senator  from  that  prov- 
ince, took  his  place  as  governor.  Dr.  Calvo 's  adminis- 
tration was  a  failure;  he  was  relieved  in  1920,  and 
Governor  Luna  again  assumed  the  office. 

To  the  non-Christians,  government  is  a  matter  of 
men,  not  of  laws.  The  personality  of  the  governors  is 
all-important.    Justice,  exact  and  unwavering,  must  be 


142     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

administered  if  he  is  to  govern  the  backward  races. 
"There  need  never  be  any  trouble  with  the  Indians," 
said  William  Penn;  "they  are  the  easiest  people  in  the 
world  to  get  on  with  if  the  white  men  would  simply  be 
just."  Penn's  was  the  only  one  of  the  American 
colonies  to  get  on  with  the  Indians.  The  American 
officials  in  the  Philippines  who  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  present  edifice  of  peace,  order,  and  progress  in  the 
Mountain  Province  displayed  the  best  qualities  of  our 
race.  The  best-known  active  field  agents  among  them 
were  William  F.  Pack,  Jeff  D.  Gallman,  E.  A.  Eckman, 
Major  O.  A.  Tomlinson,  P.  C,  Eugene  de  Mitkievicz, 
John  H.  Evans,  Leo  J.  Grove,  Samuel  E.  Kane,  W.  F. 
Hale,  C.  W.  Olson,  George  Connor,  Captain  Wilfrid 
Turnbull,  P.  C,  Captain  A.  H.  Gilfillan,  P.  C,  Captain 
F.  A.  Whitney,  P.  C,  and  Major  William  E.  Dosser, 
P.  C.  Often  absolutely  alone  and  surround  by  warlike 
men  who  had  always  in  the  past  been  regarded  as  sav- 
ages, and  had  until  then  defied  the  white  man,  they 
worked  steadily  and  unafraid  along  the  paths  of  honor, 
justice,  and  reform.  The  only  mistake  made  on  the 
part  of  the  Government  was  in  leaving  some  of  them  so 
long  at  their  lonely  posts ;  in  several  cases  they  broke 
in  nerves  or  health,  gradually  undermined  by  the  in- 
fluences of  solitary  life  and  unlimited  power.  To  the 
Filipinos  the  service  is  not  attractive,  far  away  from 
gaiety  and  association  with  their  own  people ;  they  ac- 
cept it,  as  Governor  Luna  has  done,  from  a  sense  of 
duty.  But  the  fact  that  they  so  strongly  feel  this  sense 
of  duty  and  are  determined  to  "carry  on"  in  the  work 
of  their  American  predecessors,  is  the  best  guaranty 
for  the  future. 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  American  Garrison  in  the  Philippines 

IS  the  American  army  garrison  kept  in  the  Philip- 
pines to  repel  possible  invasion  from  without,  or 
to  keep  down  Filipino  uprisings?  For  the  former  pur- 
pose it  is  too  small ;  for  the  latter,  the  Scouts  and  the 
constabulary  would  be  sufficient  for  any  conceivable 
emergency. 

From  a  military  point  of  view,  opinions  differ  as 
to  whether  even  Manila  and  Corregidor  can  be  held  by 
American  arms  in  the  face  of  a  hostile  attack  from 
without ;  the  best  professional  judgment  is  that  an  in- 
vasion of  the  Philippines  eventually  would  be  definitely 
decided  upon  the  high  seas  by  a  naval  engagement. 

The  expense  of  maintaining  the  considerable  army 
garrisons  of  white,  negro,  and  Filipino  troops,  and  of 
keeping  up  the  army  property  and  holding  large  tracts 
of  land  and  buildings  in  Manila  and  throughout  the 
provinces  as  army  reservations,  is,  together  with  the 
expenditures  for  the  naval  stations  at  Cavite  and 
Olongapo,  the  chief  cost  of  the  Philippine  Islands  to 
the  United  States.  Small  sums  are  also  expended  by 
the  home  Government  upon  the  salaries  in  the  Philip- 
pines of  one  or  more  officials  of  the  Philippine  Health 
and  Quarantine  Service,  and  one  half  of  the  cost  of 
the  Philippine  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  borne  by 
the  United  States.    Otherwise  the  Philippines,  under 

143 


144     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  American  flag,  are  self-sustaining,  and  have  been 
so  since  the  beginning  of  American  occupation. 

The  Filipinos  have  had  a  very  considerable  respect 
for  American  arms  ever  since  our  success  in  over- 
throwing their  " republic"  under  Aguinaldo.  The  un- 
popularity of  that  campaign  in  the  United  States  has 
obscured  from  American  vision  the  real  credit  of  the 
performance  from  a  military  point  of  view. 

During  the  World  War,  all  white  American  troops 
were  withdrawn  from  the  Philippines  except  a  regi- 
ment of  coast  artillery  at  Corregidor.  During  1917 
and  1918,  the  Philippines  were  quieter  politically  than 
they  were  either  before  or  afterward,  when  the  garri- 
son was  restored.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Moro  coun- 
try; since  the  American  soldiers  were  withdrawn  in 
1914  from  Mindanao  and  Sulu,  that  region  has  been 
phenomenally  peaceful.  When,  after  the  termination 
of  the  World  War,  the  American  garrison  in  the  Phil- 
ippines was  again  largely  increased,.  Secretary  Baker 
asked  me  to  tell  the  Filipinos  that  this  was  merely  an 
incident  of  army  administration  and  was  not  aimed  at 
them.  The  fact  is,  however,  that  the  United  States 
Army  is  an  integral  part  of  the  Philippine  political 
problem,  and  exercises  a  large  influence  upon  politics 
both  locally  and  in  the  United  States.  The  only  way 
to  prevent  military  influence  from  pressing  heavily 
upon  the  solution  of  the  political  problem  in  the  Philip- 
pines, would  be  to  confine  the  whole  garrison  upon 
Corregidor  Island,  and  thus  remove  them  from  con- 
tinual and  often  unfriendly  contact  with  Philippine 
civil  affairs. 

The  institution  of  civil  government  in  the  Philip- 
pines was  accomplished  by  Mr.  Taft  only  after  a  pro- 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES    145 

traded  struggle  with  the  army  officers ;  my  own  efforts 
to  give  the  Filipinos  self-government  were  hampered 
by  organizations  of  veterans.  Since  that  day,  the  army 
has  been  quiescent  or  active  in  their  dislike  of  Filipino 
government  in  proportion  to  the  control  over  them  of 
civil  influence  in  Washington. 

The  relations,  therefore,  of  the  governor-general 
with  the  army  authorities  in  Manila  are  always  a  mat- 
ter of  importance  to  the  Filipinos.  I  was  constantly 
preoccupied  with  the  effort  to  keep  these  relations  upon 
a  uniform  level  of  cordiality  and  cooperation,  from 
which  they  lapsed  for  only  two  brief  periods  of  time. 
Filipinos  know  that  most  military  men  are  opposed  to 
independence ;  they  believe  that  most  of  them  look  with 
disfavor  upon  self-government.  The  military  mind  is 
genuinely  biased  everywhere  and  in  all  countries 
toward  the  inability  of  men  to  govern  themselves. 
Their  training  is  to  look  up  to  a  superior,  not  down  to 
the  people,  as  the  source  of  authority.  Many  of  the 
republics  in  the  world  to-day  are  not  democracies  be- 
cause they  are  based  upon  military  power. 

The  governor-general,  while  ranking  above  the  com- 
manding general,  has  no  direct  control  over  him,  and 
no  authority  over  the  army  and  the  navy  in  the  Philip- 
pines, except  that  he  may,  by  law,  call  upon  either 
branch  "to  suppress  lawless  violence,  invasion,  insur- 
rection, or  rebellion,' '  subject  to  subsequent  modifica- 
tion of  his  action  by  the  President.  The  Secretary  of 
War,  on  the  other  hand,  has  no  authority  per  se  in  the 
Philippines,  and  is  not  mentioned  by  name  in  the  Jones 
Act,  except  in  Section  25  and  Section  26  thereof,  deal- 
ing with  the  insular  auditor,  evidently  an  inheritance 
from  former  statutes  and  an  inadvertence  in  the  draft- 


146     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

ing  of  the  present  organic  law.  The  Jones  Act  does 
say  of  the  governor-general:  "He  shall  annually  and 
at  such  other  times  as  he  may  be  required  make  such 
official  report  of  the  transactions  of  the  Government 
of  the  Philippine  Islands  to  an  executive  department 
of  the  United  States  to  be  designated  by  the  Presi- 
dent." President  Wilson  designated  the  Secretary 
of  War,  who  had  theretofore  always  been  charged  with 
supervision  over  the  Philippine  Government.  Another 
President  may  designate  the  Secretary  of  State,  if  the 
Philippine  question  assumes  an  aspect  of  international 
negotiation,  or  perhaps,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
to  whom  the  affairs  of  Hawaii  and  Alaska  are  reported, 
if  the  Philippine  question  is  decided  on  the  grounds 
of  eventual  statehood  in  the  American  union. 

The  official  relation  of  the  War  Department  to  the 
Philippine  Government  as  it  exists,  may  be  a  misfor- 
tune to  the  Filipinos  if  military  counsels  on  purely 
political  questions  are  in  the  ascendancy  in  the  office 
of  the  Secretary  of  War;  on  the  other  hand,  the  secre- 
tary may  be  able  to  avert  serious  trouble  between  the 
army  authorities  in  the  Philippines  and  the  civil  popu- 
lation by  his  official  and  personal  influence  over  the 
governor-general  and  the  commanding  general.  At  all 
times,  so  long  as  Major-General  Prank  Mclntyre,  as 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Insular  Affairs,  continues  to 
maintain  his  present  relations  with  the  Philippines,  the 
rights  of  the  civil  population  there  may  rest  secure  in 
his  wise  and  firm  protection. 

Most  of  the  world  powers  make  the  governor  of  a 
colony  the  commander-in-chief  of  all  forces  within  his 
jurisdiction;  even  this  plan  has  not  always  averted 
trouble,  due  to  the  fundamental  difference  between  the 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES     147 

civil  and  military  mind,  as  was  evidenced  by  the  quar- 
rel between  Lord  Curzon,  the  viceroy,  and  Lord  Kitch- 
ener, the  commanding  general,  in  India,  resulting  in 
the  retirement  of  both  by  the  British  Government. 
The  American  system  in  Hawaii,  Porto  Rico,  and 
Alaska,  and  in  the  former  territories  now  the  Western 
States  of  our  Union,  has  been  adopted  in  the  Philip- 
pines. It  was  well  described  by  Major-General  Thomas 
H.  Barry  when  President  Roosevelt  asked  him  if  he 
understood  what  his  relations  would  be  with  Governor 
Charles  E.  Magoon  in  the  second  occupation  of  Cuba. 

"Yes,  Mr.  President,"  said  the  general.  "If  there's 
peace,  Magoon 's  king;  if  there's  war,  I'm  king." 
This  displays  the  basic  defect  of  the  American  system : 
such  is  the  weakness  of  human  nature  that  the  civil 
authorities  are  inclined  to  go  too  far  to  avoid  martial 
law,  the  military  too  far  to  bring  it  about. 

The  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  the  whole  question  may 
be  seen  in  China,  where  there  is  a  civil  governor  and 
a  military  governor  in  each  province;  the  former  en- 
forces the  laws  and  collects  tribute  (taxes) ;  the  latter 
commands  the  army,  also  collects  "tribute,"  and,  in 
the  case  of  dispute,  seizes  the  civil  governor  and  his 
government.  Both  issue  paper  money  in  time  of  per- 
sonal need ! 

In  the  course  of  several  years  the  Philippine  official 
has  the  privilege  of  knowing  most  of  the  higher  officers 
of  the  regular  army.  The  Philippine  station  has  always 
been  of  interest  to  the  army,  and  residence  in  the 
islands  generally  welcomed  by  officers  and  their  fam- 
ilies for  the  two  years'  tour  of  duty  allowed  by  the 
law.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  serving  with  eight  succes- 
sive commanding  generals,  the  late  J.  Franklin  Bell 


148     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

and  Thomas  H.  Barry,  Hunter  H.  Liggett,  Charles  J. 
Bailey,  Robert  K.  Evans,  Henry  A.  Greene,  Francis  H. 
French,  and  Francis  J.  Kernan.  All  of  these  names 
are  justly  known  as  those  of  men  of  professional  ability 
and  upstanding  character.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  I 
enjoyed  the  personal  friendship  of  each  of  them 
throughout  their  service  as  commanding  generals;  I 
had  serious  administrative  difficulties,  to  be  later 
described,  with  two  of  them.  Of  the  list  of  eight, 
Generals  Barry  and  Liggett  gave  the  Philippine  Gov- 
ernment the  most  unhesitating  support;  Generals 
Evans  and  Kernan  the  least. 

The  regular  army  in  the  Philippines  consists  of 
white  and  negro  soldiers,  and  of  the  Philippine  Scouts, 
enlisted  from  among  the  population  of  the  Philippines 
under  special  authority  of  Congress.  The  constabulary 
is  the  insular  police  force,  and  has  no  direct  relation 
to  the  army.  However,  the  practice  for  years  was  to 
appoint  an  officer  of  the  army  as  General  and  Chief  of 
Constabulary,  on  detached  service,  and  some  half- 
dozen  other  army  officers  as  Colonels  and  Assistant 
Chiefs  of  Constabulary,  or  inspectors  therein.  To 
them  was  due  from  the  beginning  much  of  the  credit 
for  the  organization  and  training  of  the  constabulary, 
a  unique  and,  in  some  respects,  an  unrivaled  body  of 
men.  Those  army  officers  who  were  especially  promi- 
nent in  the  constabulary  during  my  service  were  James 
G.  Harbord,  William  C.  Rivers,  Herman  Hall,  Mark 
Hersey,  Peter  E.  Traub,  and  Marcus  Cronin, — all,  I 
believe,  later  major-generals  at  the  front  during  the 
World  War.  All  were  withdrawn  from  the  constabu- 
lary either  because  of  the  completion  of  their  terms 
of  service  or  due  to  the  exigencies  of  the  new  army  in 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES     149 

the  war.  A  finer  lot  of  men  and  officers  I  never  expect 
to  meet.  Generals  Harbord,  Herman  Hall,  and  Traub 
deserve  credit  not  only  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  con- 
stabulary, but  also  for  a  wise  and  important  influence 
exerted  by  them  in  the  growth  of  Filipino  nationality 
and  good-will  to  the  United  States.  Among  other  offi- 
cers who  were  of  the  greatest  service  to  the  Philippine 
Government,  though  not  so  directly  connected  with  it, 
during  my  time,  were  Colonel  John  B.  Bellinger,  Chief 
Quartermaster  during  1918-20,  Colonel  (afterward 
Major-General)  David  C.  Shanks,  and  Colonel  (after- 
ward Major-General)  Hinds. 

When  a  new  commanding  general  of  the  Philippine 
Department  arrives  in  Manila,  there  is  at  once  much 
anxiety  as  to  whether  or  not  he  is  going  to  "cooperate" 
with  the  Philippine  Government.  Under  one  who  is 
unsympathetic,  and  merely  formal  in  attitude,  the 
Philippine  Command  may  rapidly  become  permeated 
with  anti-Filipinism.  The  Army  and  Navy  Club  in 
Manila  then  becomes  the  center  of  anti-Filipino  ru- 
mors, and  the  ladies  of  the  army  families  indulge  in 
unlimited  anti-Filipino  talk,  constantly  revolving 
around  whispers  of  intended  " insurrections."  Older 
officers,  who  are  serving  their  third  or  fourth  tour  of 
duty  in  the  Philippines,  begin  again  to  live  in  spirit 
in  the  "days  of  the  Empire,"  before  civil  government 
was  instituted.  The  enlisted  men,  generally  less  vocal 
in  their  political  views,  and  too  often  homesick  and 
restless  in  the  confined  life  of  barracks  in  the  tropics, 
begin  to  react  to  the  psychology  of  their  officers.  Such 
is  the  supreme  influence  in  a  military  command  of  its 
chief.  The  material  at  hand  then  becomes  full  of  prom- 
ise of  an  explosion;  the  army  seems  to  be  "looking  for 


150     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

trouble,"  and  trouble  is  not  hard  to  start  when  there 
are  different  races  living  in  the  same  community. 

At  times  such  as  these  the  Philippine  Scouts  are  the 
political  storm-center.  The  officers  are  generally  ex- 
sergeants  of  the  army  enjoying  rank  as  captain  in  the 
Scouts,  and  are  in  a  state  of  continual  dissatisfaction. 
They  consider  that  they  have  not  been  generously 
treated  as  to  promotion  and  retirement  by  army  poli- 
ticians in  Washington ;  they  also  feel  that  if  the  Philip- 
pines were  given  their  independence  the  army  would 
be  withdrawn  and  their  corps  abolished.  From  a  mili- 
tary point  of  view  the  Scouts  are  a  splendid  body,  but 
they  are  impatient  because  of  long  disuse.  Their 
Filipino  enlisted  personnel  would  make  the  finest  kind 
of  soldiers,  but  are  often  a  source  of  concern  to  the  civil 
authorities,  due  to  their  quickly  imbibed  disdain  of 
civilians,  and  the  idle  life  they  lead.  Scout  officers  and 
soldiers  are  generally  employed  as  agents  of  the  local 
Military  Information  Division  of  the  army,  owing  to 
their  special  opportunities  for  familiarity  with  the 
country  and  its  inhabitants;  when  news  of  Filipino 
"unrest"  is  lacking,  they  sometimes  proceed  to  manu- 
facture it.  All  officials  who  have  had  to  do  with  secret- 
service  organizations  will  recognize  this  failing;  they 
are  prone  to  overzealousness  in  order  to  justify  their 
employment.  Upon  two  occasions  at  least  I  have 
known  "M.  I.  D."  men  of  the  Scouts  to  act  as  agents 
provocateurs  to  try  to  stir  up  an  "insurrection"  after 
the  manner  of  the  one-time  secret  agents  of  the  czars 
in  imperial  Russia, 

An  example  of  this  was  the  ' '  Christmas  Eve  upris- 
ing" of  December  24,  1914.  Manila  and  its  environs 
were  at  the  time  somewhat  restless,  owing  to  the  ac- 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES     151 

tivities  of  General  Artemio  Kicarte,  one  of  the  insur- 
gent leaders  of  the  insurrection  of  Filipinos  against  us 
in  1899-1901,  who  is  still  recalcitrant  against  the 
United  States.  He  had  refused  to  come  in  and  "be 
good, ' '  but  had  fled  the  country  and  now  dwells,  I  be- 
lieve, as  a  barber  in  Japan.  For  years  he  issued 
manifestos  signed  "Vibora"  (Viper)  to  his  people  in 
the  Philippines,  and  dealt  out  to  them  commissions  in 
his  "army"  at  from  fifty  cents  to  five  dollars  a  head. 
The  main  purpose  of  his  organization,  from  his  point 
of  view,  seemed  to  be  the  collecting  of  revenue.  Dur- 
ing the  autumn  of  1914,  the  secret  organization  in  the 
Scouts  was  at  last  convinced  that  the  time  had  come  to 
"start  something.' '  From  week  to  week,  for  nearly 
three  months,  a  date  was  fixed  in  the  provinces  around 
Manila  for  an  "uprising"  by  Kicarte 's  "army"; 
twenty-seven  times  it  was  ' '  postponed. ' '  There  is  evi- 
dence that  important  members  of  my  own  official 
family  were  privy  to  the  plan  for  political  reasons,  but 
the  extraordinarily  efficient  Chief  of  the  Philippine 
Constabulary,  General  Eafael  Crame,  who  was  then 
head  of  their  secret  service,  and  knows  his  own  people 
as  does,  perhaps,  no  other  individual,  was  puzzled  and 
nervous  because  of  his  inability  to  trace  these  rumors 
to  their  source  and  explain  the  prevalence  of  disquiet 
among  the  Kicarte  adherents.  On  Christmas  Eve  the 
"insurrection"  occurred  and  consisted  of  a  gathering, 
at  the  Botanical  Gardens  in  Manila,  of  several  dozen 
ignorant  men,  without  arms,  mostly  of  the  cook  and 
coachman  class,  who  were  arrested  by  the  city  police. 
This  disturbance  was  heralded  in  the  United  States 
press  as  an  insurrection,  and  was  evidently  expected 
to  have  an  adverse  influence  upon  the  passage  of  the 


152     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Jones  Law  then  under  consideration  in  Washington. 
When  questioned,  the  prisoners  stated  that  at  their 
preparatory  meetings  two  Filipino  sergeants  of  the 
Scouts  had  attended  and  had  promised  them  arms  if 
they  would  rise  up.  A  small  group  which  had  been 
arrested  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Scout  barracks  at  Camp 
Nichols,  near  Manila,  stated  that  they  were  waiting  for 
assistance  from  the  camp. 

I  have  watched'  seven  commanding  generals,  one 
after  another,  agitated  soon  after  arrival  by  reports 
of  "unrest"  from  their  Information  Division;  it  was 
generally  enly  after  prolonged  personal  inspection  that 
each  commanding  general  decided  that  conditions  in 
the  Philippines  were  peaceful  even  under  the  surface. 
Unfortunately,  minor  troubles  have  arisen  through  the 
mutual  jealousies  and  rivalries  of  the  Army  Informa- 
tion Division,  the  Information  Division  of  the  constab- 
ulary, which  is  a  really  effective  organization,  the 
Secret  Service  of  the  city  police,  and  the  confidential 
agents  of  the  Customs.  The  European  war,  of  course, 
quickened  the  activities  of  all  these  organizations,  and 
several  volunteer  bodies  of  citizens  joined  in  the  work 
of  secret  service.  All  this  rivalry  would,  perhaps,  be 
at  times  amusing,  if  it  were  not  so  serious  in  its  con- 
sequences. It  is  at  the  very  least  a  source  of  much 
administrative  worry,  and  contains  ever-present 
germs  of  real  trouble.  The  army  authorities,  at  times, 
assume  the  attitude  that  they,  not  the  governor-gen- 
eral, represent  the  United  States  in  the  Philippines: 
their  secret  agents  then  busy  themselves  with  securing 
reports,  more  or  less  accurate,  about  the  insular  and 
provisional  government  officials  for  secret  transmis- 
sion to  Washington.    This  would  not  be  so  dangerous 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES    153 

if  the  Military  Information  Division  were  unpreju- 
diced or  efficient.  Such  of  their  reports  as  we  were 
able  to  discover,  were  generally  the  wildest  moonshine. 
Their  agents  were  protected  against  us  by  "military 
etiquette.' '  Upon  one  occasion  several  of  their  men 
were  caught  concealed  under  the  house  of  the  head  of 
the  Information  Division  of  the  constabulary  and  haled 
into  court.  The  head  of  the  Army  Information  Di- 
vision, an  officer  of  high  rank,  went  into  court  and  testi- 
fied under  oath  that  these  men  were  unknown  to  the 
army! 

In  general,  the  army  in  the  Philippines  leads  its 
own  life,  apart  from  the  ordinary  current  of  events. 
Occasionally,  under  a  commander  as  courteous  and 
generously  broad-minded  as  Lieutenant-General  Lig- 
gett, the  officers  mingle  in  Manila  society  and  occasion- 
ally attend  Filipino  social  affairs.  At  other  times 
army  society  keeps  strictly  to  itself. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  constant  stream  of  official 
business  flowing  between  the  Philippine  Government 
and  the  army  authorities,  touching  not  only  upon  ques- 
tions affecting  personnel,  the  army  transports,  and  the 
civil  and  military  populations,  but  upon  the  many  and 
varied  business  enterprises  of  the  military  organiza- 
tion. As  has  been  already  mentioned,  the  army  has 
reservations  which  formerly  held  army  posts;  the 
military  concentration  upon  Manila  Bay  in  the  past 
decade,  and  the  final  establishment  of  peace  and  order 
throughout  the  archipelago,  have  caused  the  abandon- 
ment of  many  of  these  reservations,  as  in  Cebu  and 
Iloilo,  in  Mindanao  and  Sulu,  and  in  other  provinces. 
The  Philippine  Government  is  naturally  anxious  to 
see  this  unused  territory  returned  to  the  public  lands, 


154     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

for  settlement  or  occupation.  While  Colonel  John  B. 
Bellinger  was  chief  quartermaster,  he  made  great 
progress  in  this  direction,  both  in  the  interest  of  army- 
economy  and  in  cooperation  with  the  desires  of  the 
Government.  He  also  greatly  assisted  the  government 
of  Manila  in  the  development  of  plans  for  the  beauti- 
fying of  the  city,  for  which  he  lent  idle  trucks  and 
horses.  In  this  way  he  subsequently  drew  down  upon 
his  head  the  full  wrath  of  the  ultra-military  clique  in 
the  army. 

During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1920,  the  rela- 
tions between  the  army  and  the  civilians  reached  a 
tense  point.  Two  regiments  had  been  withdrawn  from 
the  Siberian  expedition  and  sent  to  Manila.  For  eigh- 
teen months  they  had  lived  a  life  of  excitement  and 
adventure  in  the  "no  man's  land"  around  Vladivos- 
tok. They  were  demoralized  both  as  to  discipline  and 
as  to  their  conception  of  the  rights  and  feelings  of 
others.  Whatever  bad  results  may  flow  from  our  ill- 
advised  and  foolish  participation  in  the  Siberian  expe- 
dition, among  them  may  certainly  be  counted  the  evil 
effects  upon  several  thousand  young  Americans  who 
took  part  in  that  campaign.  When  they  arrived  in 
Manila,  these  troops  were  still  under  the  command  of 
Major-General  Graves,  whose  character  and  judgment 
had  earned  him  the  respect  of  all  who  met  him,  and 
whose  conduct  had  redeemed,  so  far  as  that  was  pos- 
sible, the  folly  of  our  participation  in  the  events  of 
Siberia.  He  was  sent  to  command  the  army  post  at 
Fort  McKinley,  near  Manila,  and  he  told  me  confiden- 
tially that  all  his  days  were  spent  in  riding  his  post 
to  see  that  his  " green"  officers  made  no  serious  breaks. 

The  27th  Infantry  was  detached  from  his  command 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES    155 

and  quartered  in  Manila.  They  found  the  city  intoler- 
ably dull  after  the  lawlessness  of  Siberian  days.  Soon 
things  began  to  pop,  in  and  around  Manila.  Frequent 
assaults  upon  civilians  and  the  constant  theft  or  "bor- 
rowing" of  motor-cars  became  the  order  of  the  day. 
The  soldiers  who  were  arrested  were  at  once  turned 
over  by  the  police  to  the  military  for  trial.  The  result 
of  the  courts-martial  could  not,  for  many  months,  be 
ascertained. 

Our  first  notice  of  the  new  spirit  which  was  abroad 
in  officers'  circles  was  the  sensational  court-martial  of 
a  regular  army  officer  arrested  for  embezzlement  of 
the  funds  of  officers  of  the  National  Guard.  I  had 
referred  his  case,  as  was  the  custom,  to  the  command- 
ing general.  The  Attorney-General  had  told  me  that 
he  would  be  sentenced  in  one  hour  in  any  court  of 
the  Philippine  Government.  It  would  serve  no  pur- 
pose now  to  recall  the  details  of  this  trial  before  the 
court-martial,  in  which  the  public  took  the  deepest 
interest ;  the  principle  is  all  that  matters.  The  court- 
martial  acquitted  the  accused;  the  commanding  gen- 
eral disapproved  the  finding  of  the  court;  there  the 
matter  rested.  Army  " prestige' '  had  been  protected, 
but  American  prestige  had  suffered.  A  series  of 
similar  incidents  occurred  in  rapid  succession;  in  all 
cases  the  military  seemed  to  be  secure  in  crimes  against 
those  persons  who  were  not  in  the  army.  The  greatest 
indignation  at  these  perversions  of  justice  was  freely 
expressed  in  Filipino  circles  and  in  the  Filipino  news- 
papers. Truly,  the  evil  men  do  lives  after  them! 
Upon  the  Fourth  of  July  of  that  year,  I  stood  beside  a 
general  officer  upon  the  Luneta  while  he  observed  the 
annual  ceremony  of  reading  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 


156     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

pendence.  Several  thousand  Filipinos  heard  him  re- 
cite our  own  ancient  grievances  against  George  the 
Third: 

He  has  kept  among  us,  in  times  of  peace,  standing  armies, 
without  the  consent  of  our  legislature. 

He  has  affected  to  render  the  military  independent  of,  and 
superior  to,  the  civil  power.  .  .  . 

For  quartering  large  bodies  of  armed  troops  among  us: 

For  protecting  them,  by  a  mock  trial,  from  punishment  for 
any  murders  which  they  should  commit  on  the  inhabitants  of 
these  States: 

For  cutting  off  our  trade  with  all  parts  of  the  world.  .  .  . 

The  most  serious  incident  of  these  days  of  early 
summer  of  1920,  however,  occurred  during  my  absence 
upon  a  vacation  in  Java.  The  spirit  of  insubordination 
among  the  ex-Siberian  troops  had  led  to  many  in- 
stances of  petty  disorder  and  infractions  of  military 
discipline.  The  Military  Provost  Guard,  or  police, 
was  strengthened,  and  for  the  first  time  in  many  years 
began  to  patrol  the  streets  outside  the  military  reser- 
vation. Soldiers,  it  seems,  were  wisely  forbidden  to 
visit  the  resorts  or  dives  in  Pasay  near  Manila  which 
when  closed  by  the  Government  from  time  to  time  had 
as  regularly  sprung  up  like  mushrooms  overnight. 
On  June  5, 1920,  a  Filipino  named  Marcos  Concepcion, 
a  reputable  person  of  good  Laguna  family,  traveling 
in  his  automobile  on  the  Manila  south  road,  in  Pasay, 
was  halted  by  a  soldier  in  uniform  who  demanded  to 
search  the  car ;  when  Concepcion  attempted  to  pass  on, 
the  soldier  shot  and  killed  him.  This  soldier,  who  had 
no  legal  right  to  be  in  arms,  stationed  upon  the  public 
streets  for  the  purpose  of  stopping  civilians,  was  ac- 
quitted by  the  court-martial  upon  the  ground  that  he 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES    157 

was  only  doing  his  duty.  Higher  military  authority, 
in  approving  the  sentence  of  the  court,  added  in  excuse 
of  the  lack  of  judgment  shown  by  the  soldier,  that  he 
was  "young  and  inexperienced." 

Another  incident  occurred,  a  few  weeks  later  in 
the  province  of  Pampanga,  near  Camp  Stotsenburg, 
where  a  praiseworthy  effort  to  stop  the  smuggling  of 
liquor  into  the  reservation  was  being  made  by  the 
military  authorities.  At  midnight  of  July  7th,  the 
provost  marshal  of  Stotsenburg  entered  the  house  of 
the  acting  governor  of  the  province  with  a  detail  of 
armed  soldiers,  and  with  threats  of  establishing  mar- 
tial law,  his  hand  on  his  revolver,  forced  the  governor 
to  sign  under  protest  an  order  for  the  suspension  of 
the  Chief  of  Police  of  Angeles,  without  waiting  for 
the  hearing  set  two  days  thereafter.  Martial  law 
could  be  proclaimed  only  by  the  governor-general,  but 
many  of  these  untrained  officers  had  a  different  un- 
derstanding. In  fact,  there  is  strong  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  there  was  a  positive  hope  upon  the  part 
of  many  officers,  during  July  and  August,  1920,  of 
bringing  about  a  state  of  affairs  in  which  martial  law 
would  be  necessary.  Reports  of  the  need  for  military 
interference  were  already  filling  the  American  press, 
sent  home  by  reputable  journalists  visiting  the  Phil- 
ippines who  had  obtained  their  " information"  at  mil- 
itary headquarters. 

One  of  the  stories  told  was  that,  owing  to  Filipino 
objection  to  the  recently  passed  United  States  Coast- 
wise Shipping  Law,  the  Filipinos  were  for  the  first 
time  in  years  on  the  verge  of  revolt,  and  were  being 
led  into  war  against  the  United  States  by  Senate 
President  Manuel  L.  Quezon.  The  facts  were  the  exact 


158     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

contrary.  The  extension  of  our  coastwise  laws  to  the 
Philippines  was,  indeed,  vigorously  opposed  in  the 
Philippines;  it  always  had  been;  President  Taft  had 
vetoed  such  a  proposition  ten  years  before.  I  well  re- 
member decisive  debates  against  it  in  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives  in  Washington  when  I  was  a  member. 
When  the  law  was  at  length  passed,  in  1920,  the  public 
in  Manila  held  many  meetings,  to  protest  in  an  orderly, 
peaceable,  and  respectful  manner  against  the  measure. 
President  Quezon  most  eloquently  voiced  the  prevail- 
ing opinion.  Since  when  have  we  denied  people  the 
right  peaceably  to  assemble  and  petition?  Attention 
is  again  invited  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Anti-Filipino  feeling  reached  a  climax  early  in  Aug- 
ust, 1920,  during  the  visit  to  Manila  of  the  large  Con- 
gressional party  which  was  then  making  an  unofficial 
tour  of  the  Orient.  The  American-printed  papers  in 
Manila — several  of  which,  by  the  way,  are  under  the 
control  of  foreigners — seized  upon  the  opportunity 
for  a  political  play.  They  issued,  apparently  upon  a 
concerted  plan,  a  series  of  articles  ridiculing  the  Fil- 
ipinos and  severely  denouncing  their  alleged  shortcom- 
ings, to  show  their  incapacity  in  government.  It  so 
happened  that  these  papers  were  all  printed  by  Fil- 
ipino employees.  All  of  these  employees  one  day 
walked  out  of  the  offices  of  the  papers  which  were  en- 
gaged in  making  such  unjust  and  humiliating  attacks 
upon  their  race.  No  disorder  accompanied  the  walk- 
out, which  was  in  sharp  contrast,  by  the  way,  with  the 
conduct  of  the  American  Marines  in  Nicaragua,  a  few 
months  later,  who  retaliated  upon  a  native  newspaper, 
which  had  abused  the  United  States,  by  wrecking  the 
newspaper  office. 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES    159 

The  presence  of  the  Congressional  party,  the  news- 
paper strike,  and  the  general  political  excitement  dne 
to  an  organized  effort  on  the  part  of  many  American 
residents  of  Manila  to  discredit  Filipino  self-govern- 
ment, led  to  great  though  secret  activity  in  army 
headquarters.  One  evening  all  the  officers  were  hastily 
summoned  from  their  clubs  and  hotels  and  all  soldiers 
ordered  to  barracks,  where  they  were  held  under  arms ; 
machine-guns  were  mounted  upon  trucks  to  be  ready 
at  any  moment ;  all  soldiers  were  ordered  off  the  streets 
except  armed  patrols  disguised  as  military  police, 
which  were  massed  at  strategic  points.  All  of  this  was 
done  without  consulting  or  informing  the  officials  of 
the  Insular  Government.  When  we  learned  of  it 
through  the  agents  of  the  city  police,  it  is  hard  to  say 
whether  more  surprise  or  indignation  was  expressed 
in  the  Council  of  State.  There  was  no  possibility  of 
any  concerted  disorder  in  Manila,  and  absolutely  none 
of  the  agents  of  the  Government  could  explain  the 
action  of  the  military.  What  was  coming?  Suppose 
a  dozen  citizens  acting  under  the  impulse  of  some  real 
or  fancied  grievance  or  insult  from  one  of  the  bands 
of  ''provost  guards"  had  caused  a  street  brawl.  The 
state  of  mind  of  the  army  officers  was  evidently  similar 
to  that  which  preceded  the  Boston  Massacre  in  1770, 
or  the  slaughter  of  Amritsar  in  the  Punjab  in  1919. 
Might  not  the  Scouts  be  employed  as  professional  kil- 
lers, like  the  Gurkhas  of  the  Indian  Army?  It  needed 
only  a  spark  to  cause  an  explosion.  Had  any  clash 
occurred,  the  press  in  the  United  States  would  have 
been  loaded  to  the  brim  with  stories  of  insurrection 
and  Filipino  revolt.  How  well  founded  was  the  anxiety 
of  the  Filipinos  in  the  Council  of  State  in  those  days 


160     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

may  be  guessed  from  the  results  of  the  rioting  of  the 
Egyptians  in  Alexandria  in  May,  1921.  These  riots 
have  been  joyfully  seized  upon  by  the  newspapers  of 
all  the  colonial  powers  of  the  world  as  the  chief  re- 
maining argument  against  the  independence  of  Egypt. 
Some  of  the  excitement  in  Manila  evidently  spread 
under  cover  to  the  provinces.  A  secret-service  report 
I  had  at  that  time  from  San  Fernando,  La  Union,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  away,  was  as  follows: 

While  at  San  Fernando  I  heard  a  lot  of  discussion  as  to  the 
Independence  question,  and  there  is  a  lot  of  bad  feeling. 
I  found  about  every  other  man  talking  about  it.  Several 
people  told  me  seriously  that  Martial  Law  was  to  be  declared 
in  Manila  and  that  the  Military  were  going  to  take  over  the 
Government.  One  story  repeated  at  least  a  dozen  times  with 
a  little  difference  was :  that  the  General  commanding  the  Divi- 
sion had  called  Governor-General  Harrison,  Quezon,  and 
Osmefia  to  his  office  at  General  Philippine  Headquarters  one 
night  and  given  them  twenty-four  hours  to  stop  the  strike 
[the  newspapers]  or  he  would  declare  Martial  Law.  .  .  . 
There  are  all  kinds  of  versions  of  the  Military  police  being 
employed  in  Manila  and  if  those  newspaper  arguments  about 
those  points  keep  up,  they  will  be  ripe  in  some  places  in  the 
province  for  trouble. 

To  illustrate  how  aggressive  the  sentiment  was  at 
that  time  in  American  commercial  circles  in  Manila, 
the  leading  American  banker,  a  resolute  opponent  of 
Filipino  self-government,  advocated  to  me  taking  away 
the  responsible  officers  of  government  from  the  Fil- 
ipinos. I  asked  him  if  he  did  not  understand  that  his 
policy  would,  in  the  course  of  time,  really  lead  to  dis- 
order. His  eyes  gleamed  as  he  replied:  "Well,  then, 
let's  have  the  revolt,  the  sooner  the  better,  and  have  it 
over  with;  we  should  strengthen  the  army  now!" 

And  all  of  this  occurred  while  the  Filipinos  were 


.#^7t 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES    161 

priding  themselves  upon  their  loyalty  to  the  United 
States  and  were  convinced  of  the  generous  good-will  of 
the  Americans  toward  them. 

I  suppose  that  Secretary  Baker  was  too  much  oc- 
cupied with  matters  nearer  home  to  pay  much  atten- 
tion to  my  cablegrams  of  those  days;  and,  always  at 
his  elbow  stood  the  figure  of  General  Peyton  C.  March, 
that  ''dread  two-handed  engine  at  the  door."  To  him, 
as  much  as  to  any  individual,  we  ascribed  the  virtual 
failure,  in  1917  and  1918,  of  the  most  vigorous  concrete 
effort  of  the  Filipino  people  to  show  their  gratitude  for 
what  America  had  done  for  them  by  the  organization 
of  a  division  of  volunteers  for  service  with  the  army 
during  the  European  war.  How  this  division  was  ham- 
pered, delayed,  and  thwarted  by  army  politics  is  a  de- 
pressing tale  of  intrigue  and  indifference ;  how  it  was 
used  by  certain  army  politicians  to  discredit  the  Fil- 
ipinos by  misrepresentation  and  abuse  is  an  exhibition 
of  the  most  ungenerous  and  unattractive  side  of  the 
imperialistic  character. 

During  the  early  winter  of  1916-17,  when  the  proba- 
bility of  our  entering  the  war  was  increasing  week  by 
week,  inquiries  were  made  by  the  Philippine  adminis- 
tration whether  compulsory  military  service  should  be 
instituted  in  the  islands.  Both  President  Wilson  and 
Secretary  Baker  looked  with  disfavor  upon  the  idea. 
However,  when  our  diplomatic  relations  with  Germany 
were  severed,  a  special  session  of  the  Legislature  was 
called,  and  President  Quezon's  Militia  Act  No.  2715, 
was  passed.  This  gave  to  the  governor-general  the 
power  to  introduce  compulsory  military  service  in  the 
islands,  by  providing  for  the  inclusion  in  the  Philip- 
pine National  Guard  of  every  able-bodied  citizen  be- 


162     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

tween  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five;  no  restric- 
tion was  made  in  the  law  upon  the  service  to  which  the 
Guard  might  be  disposed  by  the  governor-general. 
Speeches  in  the  Legislature  by  the  leaders  of  the  dif- 
ferent parties  showed  unanimous  support  of  the  United 
States.  This,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  not  pro- 
voked by  an  anti-German  spirit,  for  Germans  were  per- 
sonally popular  with  the  Filipinos ;  it  was  purely  pro- 
American.  The  act  created  a  militia  commission  as 
advisers  to  the  governor-general  as  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Militia.  Most  of  the  members  of  the  mil- 
itia commission  were  Filipino  officials  of  the  Govern- 
ment. They  were  unanimously  in  favor  of  active 
participation  in  the  European  war  after  we  had  en- 
tered the  conflict,  and  on  April  25,  1917,  resolved  to 
11  offer  the  services  of  the  Philippine  National  Guard 
to  be  organized"  for  that  purpose. 

Immediate  steps  were  taken  to  organize  a  division 
of  volunteers,  by  proclamation  of  the  governor-general 
on  April  12,  1917,  and  General  Mclntyre  was  urged  to 
secure  legislation  by  Congress  which  would  permit  the 
President  to  accept  the  services  of  a  division  of  Fil- 
ipinos for  foreign  service.  So  eager  were  the  Filipinos 
to  show  their  loyalty  that  they  decided  to  send  a  board 
to  Washington,  consisting  of  General  Aguinaldo,  Sen- 
ate President  Quezon,  and  General  Thomas  L.  Harti- 
gan  of  the  Guard  to  urge  acceptance  of  the  offer  by  the 
United  States.  Major-General  Hunter  Liggett,  the 
Department  Commander  of  the  Philippines,  and  his 
successor,  Major-General  Charles  J.  Bailey,  were  en- 
thusiastically in  favor  of  the  division  of  Filipino  vol- 
unteers. Major-General  Shanks  was  one  of  the  militia 
commission  until  he  was  called  home  for  other  service. 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES     163 

Lieutenant-Colonel  (afterward  Brigadier-General) 
Francis  C.  Marshall,  Jr.,  U.  S.  A.,  was  the  first  Adju- 
tant-General of  the  Philippine  National  Guard,  until 
he,  too,  after  a  few  weeks  was  summoned  home,  to  be 
followed  by  Major  (afterward  Brigadier-General) 
Lincoln  C.  Andrews,  also  immediately  called  home; 
Captain  W.  N.  Hensley,  Lieutenant  R.  N.  Perley,  and, 
later,  Captain  Richard  Donovan,  all  of  the  regular 
army,  were  detailed  to  assist  the  organization  of  the 
Guard. 

All  these  preliminary  steps  were  being  watched  by 
the  Filipino  people  with  the  most  intense  interest; 
all  through  the  provinces  the  flower  of  Filipino  youth 
were  preparing  to  volunteer,  and  many  of  the  leaders 
were  impatient  to  be  up  and  doing. 

From  that  point  onward  the  history  of  the  Filipino 
division  is  one  of  disappointments  and  delays.  We 
were  advised  from  Washington  not  to  send  the  com- 
mittee composed  of  Aguinaldo,  Quezon,  and  Hartigan. 
The  two  latter  gentlemen,  therefore,  went  to  Washing- 
ton to  act,  not  as  a  committee,  but  as  individuals,  as 
best  they  could.  On  June  6th,  Mr.  Quezon,  accom- 
panied by  Resident  Commissioners  de  Veyra  and 
Yangco,  and  Ramon  Fernandez,  saw  President  Wil- 
son; they  assured  the  President  of  the  loyalty  of  the 
Philippines,  and  Mr.  Quezon  made  offer  of  the  Philip- 
pine National  Guard.  Replying,  Mr.  Wilson  said: 
"It  may  have  a  wholesome  effect  even  in  Europe  to 
have  Filipinos  there  fighting  for  the  cause  of  Democ- 
racy." The  Secretary  of  War  was  favorable  to  the 
idea  of  organizing  such  a  division,  and  Mr.  Quezon 
cabled  back  that  the  enthusiatic  reception  accorded 
by  the  American  press  to  the  offer  of  Filipino  volun- 


164     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

teers  "is  taken  in  the  United  States  as  a  vindication 
of  the  Philippine  policy."  That  was  the  exact  point 
at  issue.  The  Filipino  people,  before  self-government 
had  been  given  them,  had  been  suspicious  of  the  United 
States,  and  at  least  indifferent  if  not  discontented. 
Now  they  were  volunteering  the  best  of  their  youth 
to  the  United  States  for  service  on  the  European  bat- 
tle-fields. That  was  a  ' 'vindication' '  of  considerable 
significance. 

However,  in  Washington,  the  President,  Secretary 
Baker,  and  General  Mclntyre  were  occupied  with 
duties  of  overwhelming  importance  to  our  own  coun- 
try; and  in  the  War  Department  the  army  was  neces- 
sarily in  control.  Congress  was  preoccupied.  Filipino 
volunteers  could  cool  their  heels  and  their  impatience. 
It  was  not  until  nine  months  later,  on  January  2,  1918, 
that  Congress  passed  a  law  permitting  the  President 
to  accept  the  Filipino  volunteers. 

Meanwhile,  the  gallant  Liggett  and  Bailey  and  their 
principal  officers  had  gone  to  the  front,  there  to  add 
luster  to  American  arms.  A  retired  general  was  sent 
to  the  Philippine  command,  from  which  substantially 
all  the  American  soldiers  had  been  withdrawn.  Under 
him  and  several  of  his  staff,  discontented  and  embit- 
tered at  being  left  behind  in  the  Philippines  in  such 
times  as  these,  a  persistent  and  determined  effort  was 
made  to  retard  the  organization  of  the  National  Guard 
division.  Every  possible  obstacle  was  put  forward, 
every  delay  introduced.  Instead  of  officers  being  lent 
to  teach  and  organize  the  Guard,  attempts  were  fre- 
quently made  to  deprive  it  of  the  three  regular  officers 
at  National  Guard  headquarters.  Colonel  Ralph  W. 
Jones  of  the  constabulary  was  Adjutant-General  of 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES    165 

the  Guard,  a  medal-of-honor  man  because  of  heroic 
action  in  the  former  campaign  in  Samar.  General 
Thomas  Hartigan  was  representing  the  Guard  in 
Washington.  The  Philippine  Government  was  ex- 
erting every  effort  to  secure  permission  and  help  from 
the  War  College  in  Washington,  and  offered  to  pay 
all  the  expenses,  if  only  the  authorities  would  give  or 
lend  equipment.  In  the  Philippines,  the  remnant  of 
the  Regular  Army  would  not  cooperate. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  in  the  conference  with 
Generals  Liggett,  Bailey,  Morrison,  and  Shanks,  it 
was  agreed  to  furnish  the  National  Guard  with  the 
twenty-five  thousand  extra  rifles  stored  at  Fort  San- 
tiago in  Manila;  in  December  of  that  year  we  found 
that  these  rifles  had  been  sent  to  the  United  States; 
the  only  rifles  available  for  the  officers'  training-camp 
were  one  thousand  of  the  old  type  left  unused  at  Fort 
Santiago.  In  order  to  prevent  the  Guard's  securing 
these,  the  army  hastily  condemned  them  and  secretly 
threw  them  into  the  deep  waters  of  Manila  Bay ;  med- 
ical officers  were  refused,  Scout  officers  anxious  to 
volunteer  were  discouraged  and  forbidden  to  communi- 
cate with  the  Guard.  There  was  a  storm  of  opposition 
in  the  local  American-printed  newspapers  which  were 
in  touch  with  the  army,  until  the  governor-general 
ordered  the  deportation  of  a  British  subject  who  edited 
one  of  these  papers,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  ob- 
structing the  defense  plans  of  the  United  States.  The 
Filipino  people  were,  naturally,  sore  and  bewildered  at 
the  reception  accorded  their  well-meant  offer.  In  those 
days  I  could  detect  at  once  the  otherwise  well-concealed 
bias  of  any  American  or  foreigner  in  the  Philippines, 
pro-  or  anti-Filipino,  by  his  attitude  toward  the  Guard. 


166     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Meanwhile,  messages  from  army  headquarters  in 
Washington  to  their  representatives  in  Manila  were, 
by  their  indifference  or  slighting  references  to  the 
Guard,  highly  encouraging  to  those  who  were  fighting 
it  locally.  On  June  12, 1917,  Adjutant-General  McCain 
in  Washington  cabled  General  Evans  in  Manila:  "In 
view  of  short  period  of  training  Philippine  Division, 
not  considered  necessary  to  permanently  assign  reg- 
ular officers."  From  Manila  we  petitioned  Washing- 
ton by  cable:  "Let  us  have  all  Scout  officers  and  men 
who  will  volunteer.  .  .  .  Filipinos  cannot  understand 
delays  and  our  explanations  worn  threadbare."  A 
few  days  later  General  Evans  was  relieved,  General 
Henry  A.  Greene  was  sent  out  in  August  to  take  his 
place,  and  promptly  cooperated  in  the  organization 
of  the  Guard.  On  October  5th,  the  officers'  camp  was 
completed  and  Camp  Claudio,  near  Manila,  prepared 
for  recruitment;  on  November  11th  the  Divison  was 
mobilized,  and  on  November  20th,  or  nine  days  after 
the  Armistice,  was  mustered  into  the  federal  service. 

The  division  was  commanded  by  Brigadier-General 
F.  R.  Day,  U.  S.  A.;  all  officers  above  the  grade  of 
major,  by  insistence  of  the  army,  were  Americans, 
except  Lieutenant-Colonel  Vicente  R.  Barros,  a  West 
Point  graduate.  Most  of  the  higher  officers  were  from 
the  Scouts  and  the  constabulary,  and  were  possessed 
of  wide  experience  in  the  field  and  long  service.  Alto- 
gether, it  was  an  organization  which  any  soldier  might 
well  have  been  proud  to  command.  Out  of  28,000 
volunteers  offering,  only  14,000  were  authorized  by 
Washington,  and  they  had  only  one  month's  service 
at  federal  expense;  two  months'  more  were  added  at 


AMERICAN  GARRISON  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES    167 

the  expense  of  the  Philippine  Government.  The 
United  States  spent  approximately  $515,000  in  this 
acceptance  of  the  whole-hearted  and  spontaneous  offer 
of  the  Filipinos;  the  Filipinos  spent  $2,406,000  upon 
the  same  object;  how  much  they  expended  in  unre- 
quited sentiment  and  in  disdainfully  accepted  good-will 
and  loyalty  will  never  be  known.  Had  they  met  with 
appreciation  and  encouragement,  the  resultant  pride 
and  satisfaction  in  the  Philippines  would  have  been  a 
valuable  asset,  in  the  future,  to  our  country.  It  is  to 
be  feared,  however,  that  had  the  Philippine  National 
Guard,  despite  opposition,  been  more  quickly  organ- 
ized, the  clique  dominant  in  army  politics  would 
have  sent  them  only  to  the  Mexican  border,  a  move 
known  to  be  antagonistic  to  the  sentiments  of  the  Fili- 
pinos and  expected  to  be  a  severe  strain  upon  their 
good-will. 

All  of  the  other  nations  engaged  in  the  war  made 
effective  use  of  their  colonial  troops,  generally  by 
methods  of  compulsion,  either  in  the  various  arenas 
of  active  campaign  or  in  holding  down  other  discon- 
tented populations.  The  Filipinos  needed  no  holding 
down;  all  the  repression  exercised  toward  them  was 
in  holding  down  their  enthusiasm  for  the  American 
cause  by  snubbing  their  efforts  to  volunteer  for  service. 
Their  loyalty  was  complete  and  unanimous,  but  did  not 
receive  much  active  encouragement  from  Washington. 
That  the  Guard  would  have  made  a  brilliant  record  for 
itself,  if  given  an  opportunity,  must  be  conceded.  It 
is  also  certain  that  such  a  record  would  have  been  a 
powerful  stimulus  to  the  national  pride  of  these  people 
and  would  have  gained  them  appreciation  from  the 


168     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

great  powers,  thus  advancing  their  claim  to  independ- 
ence. Perhaps  this  was  the  chief  and  only  defect  of 
the  Philippine  National  Guard  in  certain  minds  then 
in  the  ascendancy  in  Washington. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Incidents  of  War  Times 

AMONG  the  pleasant  memories  of  Philippine  days, 
association  with  onr  naval  officers  is  among  the 
brightest.  Admirals  Cowles,  Nicholson,  Knight, 
Gleaves,  and  Casey  B.  Morgan,  and  Captain  Edward 
Simpson  and  their  respective  staffs,  all,  in  tnrn,  helped 
in  countless  ways  the  progress  of  Philippine  adminis- 
tration during  my  service  there.  Professionally  keen 
and  socially  popular,  they  helped  on  the  work  of  mak- 
ing friends  with  the  Filipino  people.  Their  training  as 
men  of  the  world  enables  naval  officers  to  adapt  them- 
selves with  dignity  and  geniality  to  their  surround- 
ings wherever  they  may  be  sent.  It  has  often  been  a 
matter  of  wonder  to  me  why  our  Government  does  not 
employ  its  retired  admirals  as  ambassadors,  instead  of 
distributing  diplomatic  posts  as  political  plums  to  rich 
campaign  contributors  after  each  election  day. 

Our  Navy  Department  has  profited  from  the  sad 
experience  of  Spain  on  May  1,  1898,  in  Manila  Bay; 
Dewey's  destruction  of  the  Spanish  fleet  off  Cavite  is 
to  have  no  parallel  in  American  annals.  We  keep  no 
ships  of  value  in  Philippine  waters,  only  a  cruiser  as 
flagship,  an  old  monitor,  a  few  destroyers,  and  a  num- 
ber of  submarines.  The  great  power  of  the  United 
States  Navy  is  concentrated  at  points  nearer  home, 
whence  it  can  strike  when  needed.  Even  the  flag- 
ship of  the  Pacific  Fleet  is  seldom  at  Manila,  for  the 

169 


170     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

admiral  upon  that  station  is  usually  in  Chinese,  Jap- 
anese, or  Siberian  waters,  and  served  our  country 
as  auxiliary  ambassador  in  the  midst  of  recent  events 
so  stirring  in  world  politics. 

There  are  two  naval  stations  in  the  Philippines, — 
Cavite,  where  the  Spanish  arsenal  still  serves  our 
sailors  and  marines,  and  Olongapo,  at  Subig  Bay, 
about  fifty  miles  up  the  coast.  A  controversy  always 
raged  in  the  Navy  Department  over  these  two  stations, 
and  it  was  understood  that  as  soon  as  Admiral  Dewey 
died  the  post  at  Olongapo  would  be  abandoned,  and  all 
forces  concentrated  at  Cavite.  This  has  not  yet  come 
to  pass ;  all  efforts  of  the  Philippine  Government,  vig- 
orously seconded  by  Admiral  Knight,  to  secure  the  old 
dry-dock  Dewey  at  Olongapo  for  a  government  ship- 
yard with  precedence  for  naval  work,  have  failed ;  the 
papers  concerning  the  plan  have  been  pigeonholed  in 
Washington.  So  far  as  the  Filipinos  are  concerned, 
the  navy  could  have'  for  the  asking,  either  before  or 
after  Philippine  independence,  such  additional  sites  as 
they  desire  for  naval  stations  in  the  archipelago.  The 
navy  is  popular  with  the  Filipinos,  many  thousands  of 
whom  serve  as  mess-boys  or  as  laborers  at  the  yards. 

Professional  jealousy  between  the  army  and  the 
navy,  even  since  the  war,  is  not  unknown  in  the  Philip- 
pines. "When  the  commanding  general  was  asked  to 
designate  an  officer  to  serve  on  the  public  committee  to 
solicit  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  Dewey  memorial  in 
Manila,  he  refused,  adding :  " Why  Dewey?  Why  not 
General  Otis  I ' '  The  only  memorial  to  our  gallant  ad- 
miral there  to-day  is  Dewey  Boulevard  on  the  water- 
front, recently  so  named  by  resolution  of  the  Filipino 
Municipal  Board  of  Manila.  Other  memorials,  it  might 


INCIDENTS  OF  WAR  TIMES  171 

be  added,  are  holes  from  Dewey's  shells  through  Agui- 
naldo  *s  home  at  Cavite  and  through  the  church  at  Mal- 
ate.  The  best  memorial  of  all,  however,  is  the  remem- 
brance of  the  kindly  and  heroic  personality  of  Dewey, 
and  the  recognition  that  it  was  primarily  due  to  him 
that  the  United  States  secured  the  opportunity  to  be 
of  world  service  in  the  Philippines.  Since  his  day,  and 
up  to  the  time  of  our  entrance  into  the  World  War, 
the  navy  in  the  Philippines  has  had  little  direct  par- 
ticipation in  the  public  affairs  of  the  islands.  It 
rendered,  however,  notable  service  at  one  time  in 
putting  a  stop  to  the  opium  smuggling  carried  on  by 
the  Moros  and  Chinese  in  the  southern  islands. 

In  August,  1914,  soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the 
European  war,  I  had  my  first  occasion  to  call  on  the 
navy  for  assistance.  Manila  was  then  the  only  safe 
neutral  port  for  German  merchant  vessels  trading 
along  the  China  coast,  in  Indo-China,  and  in  Japan. 
About  two  dozen  of  them  at  once  made  full  speed  for 
our  waters.  A  wireless  message  signed  ' '  Captain  S.S. 
Mark,"  came  to  me  one  evening  in  Manila,  stating  that 
the  sender's  ship  was  pursued  inside  the  three-mile 
limit  by  a  British  cruiser,  and  calling  on  me  to  en- 
force our  neutrality.  The  United  States  cruiser  Al- 
bany had  arrived  that  afternoon  at  Manila  from  China, 
and  its  captain  at  once  responded  to  my  request  by 
calling  his  men  back  from  shore  leave,  which  caused 
great  momentary  excitement  along  the  waterfront.  A 
few  hours  later,  the  Albany  escorted  the  Mark  safely 
to  anchorage  inside  the  breakwater.  Nearly  three  years 
later,  the  Mark,  a  splendid  merchant  vessel,  was  the 
first  of  the  locally  seized  and  repaired  German  vessels 


172     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

to  leave  Manila  Bay  under  our  flag  for  the  transporting 
of  American  soldiers  across  the  Atlantic. 

Upon  another  occasion,  however,  I  was  not  so  suc- 
cessful with  the  navy.  On  February  3,  1917,  at  two 
o  'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  President  addressed  Con- 
gress, breaking  off  diplomatic  relations  with  Germany. 
There  were  then  seventeen  German  merchant  vessels 
in  Manila  Harbor,  three  at  Cebu,  and  three  near  Zam- 
boanga,  all  rusting  at  their  anchorage  for  the  past  two 
and  a  half  years.  They  were  generally  referred  to 
locally  as  the  "interned"  ships,  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  they  had  been  free  to  depart  at  any  moment  their 
captains  chose  to  apply  for  clearance.  The  certainty 
of  capture  by  British  or  Japanese  cruisers  outside  the 
three-mile  limit  had  kept  them  at  their  anchorage. 
Only  one  of  them  had  tried  it,  the  Princess  Alice,  which, 
early  in  August,  1914,  had  cleared  from  Manila  for 
Tsingtau,  run  southward  around  Mindanao,  and  made 
for  Yap,  only  to  find  the  wireless  station  there  de- 
stroyed, and  to  learn  that  Japan  had  entered  the  war ; 
she  put  about  immediately  at  full  speed  and  arrived 
in  Zamboanga  upon  her  last  ton  of  coal.  Later,  she 
was  moved  to  the  safer  anchorage  in  Cebu  by  request 
of  her  captain. 

About  twenty-four  hours  before  the  President  an- 
nounced the  severing  of  diplomatic  relations  the  com- 
manders of  the  twenty-three  German  ships  in  Philip- 
pine waters,  evidently  by  prearrangement,  had  the 
machinery  of  their  ships  so  damaged  as  to  disable  the 
vessels  completely.  Word  was  brought  to  us  imme- 
diately of  this  fact  by  the  customs  authorities,  and 
cabled  by  me  to  Washington,  with  request  for  advice 
whether  to  seize  the  vessels  or  only  search  them  for 


INCIDENTS  OF  WAR  TIMES  173 

explosives.  The  Secretary  of  War  replied  that  if  suit- 
able excuse  could  be  found  the  vessels  should  be 
searched,  that  no  merchant  vessels  had  been  seized  in 
the  United  States,  and  that  if  in  my  judgment  "  evi- 
dence is  clear  of  intention  to  destroy  or  sink  ships,  you 
should  take  necessary  steps  to  prevent  it.  If  necessary 
to  assume  control  of  ships,  make  it  clear  that  it  is  to 
protect  harbor  and  property  and  not  to  take  title  to 
ships."  The  administration  in  Washington  was  still 
in  no  position  to  authorize  directly  any  action  which 
might  be  considered  hostile  by  Germany,  so  I  deter- 
mined to  act  myself. 

On  February  5th  I  called  a  conference  at  Malacanan, 
consisting  of  Admiral  Winterhalter  and  his  Chief  of 
Staff,  Commanding-General  Hunter  H.  Liggett,  the 
Chief  of  Constabulary,  General  Herman  Hall,  and  the 
Collector  of  Customs,  John  S.  Stanley.  I  notified  the 
admiral  that  in  order  to  prevent  lawless  violence  I  had 
determined  to  seize  the  ships,  and  that  I  called  upon 
him  to  do  it,  to  avoid  any  possibility  of  resistance  which 
might  be  encountered  if  we  employed  for  that  purpose 
the  Filipino  constabulary  soldiers,  the  only  armed  force 
at  the  direct  disposition  of  the  Insular  Government. 
Admiral  Winterhalter  replied  that  he  would  like  to 
know  my  reasons;  I  explained  them  to  him  and  then 
read  the  law  of  Congress  giving  the  governor-general 
the  right  to  call  on  him  for  such  a  purpose,  explaining 
that  I  assumed  full  responsibility  and  it  was  not  "his 
to  reason  why."  He  demurred  and  a  two-hours '  dis- 
cussion ensued.  Finally  I  called  attention  to  the  hour, 
four  o'clock,  and  said  that  before  dark  the  ships  would 
be  seized,  and  again  called  on  him  to  do  it.  He  re- 
plied that  he  could  not  get  ready  that  day. 


174     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

"Yes,  sir,"  broke  in  his  Chief  of  Staff,  Captain 
Sypher,  who  had  been  sitting  there  red  in  the  face 
and  evidently  bursting  with  impatience,  "we  have 
been  ready  since  six  o'clock  this  morning." 

Driven  into  a  corner  by  this,  Admiral  Winter- 
halter  finally  refused  to  seize  the  ships,  but  said  he 
would  stand  by  in  small  boats  to  support  if  there  were 
any  trouble.  I  then  directed  General  Hall  to  take  the 
constabulary  and  take  over  the  ships;  he  did  in  less 
than  an  hour,  without  confusion  or  resistance.  Those 
at  Cebu  and  Zamboanga  were  seized  the  next  day.  All 
were  eventually  repaired,  and  turned  over  to  the  Ship- 
ping Board.  The  seventeen  largest  were  used  in  the 
Army  Transport  Service  to  carry  troops  to  France; 
the  smaller  ones  were  left  to  the  Philippine  Govern- 
ment to  use  as  commercial  vessels,  and  were  of  great 
service  during  the  acute  shortage  of  bottoms  of  those 
years.  The  news  of  the  seizure  of  the  German  ships 
in  the  Philippines  caused  some  confusion  in  the  State 
Department  at  the  time,  as  I  was  later  on  informed 
by  my  friend  Frank  L.  Polk,  Under-Secretary  of 
State;  in  Washington,  they  were  at  the  moment  bal- 
ancing to  a  nicety  the  delicate  situation  with  the 
German  Government.  On  February  7th  came  a  mes- 
sage from  the  Secretary  of  War,  cautioning  me  as  to 
the  legal  situation  and  to  claim  no  seizure  or  ownership 
of  the  vessels.  On  February  27th  came  another 
message : 

Attorney  for  Hamburg-American  Line  desires,  if  possible, 
that  vessels  be  placed  in  charge  of  their  crews.  Is  it  practi- 
cable and  advisable,  in  your  opinion,  by  securing  bonds  or 
other  guarantees,  to  permit  this? 


INCIDENTS  OF  WAR  TIMES  175 

To  which  I  answered,  "Present  status  quo  the  most 
satisfactory  at  this  time."  On  March  3d  the  State 
Department  was  preparing  a  reply  to  the  claim  of  the 
German  Government  that  crews  of  German  vessels  in 
the  Philippines  had  been  illegally  removed  from  their 
vessels  and  detained.  I  cabled  the  authority  of  Phil- 
ippine Law  under  which  action  had  been  taken.  The 
discussion  was  definitely  halted  by  the  declaration  of 
war  by  Congress,  on  April  6th. 

At  that  time,  Admiral  Knight  arrived  to  command 
the  Pacific  Fleet,  and  at  once  took  a  most  vigorous 
part  in  the  preparations  for  war;  his  knowledge  of 
international  law  and  prompt  power  of  decision  and 
action  were  of  invaluable  service;  we  were  most  for- 
tunate in  his  presence  at  Manila,  and  he  exemplified  the 
best  traditions  of  the  United  States  Navy. 

The  proclamations  fixing  channels  for  shipping,  for 
wireless  control,  for  the  harbor  defenses  of  the  Phil- 
ippines were  largely  the  work  of  Admiral  Knight.  So 
were  the  repair  and  refitting  of  the  captured  German 
vessels,  which  were  done  either  directly  by  the  navy  at 
Ilongapo  or  under  the  direction  of  naval  officers;  the 
despatch  of  these  vessels  carrying  Manila  hemp  for 
the  navy  at  home  was  a  material  assistance  in  the 
equipment  and  transportation  of  our  forces.  Later 
on,  one  of  the  most  delicate  of  negotiations  was,  during 
the  absence  of  the  admiral,  accomplished  by  Captain 
Simpson,  commandant  at  Cavite.  In  March,  1918, 
Captain  Simpson  brought  me  a  confidential  despatch 
from  Washington  directing  him  to  seize  under  the 
right  of  "angary"  the  three  Dutch  ships  then  in 
Manila  Harbor,  but  to  use  no  force  in  doing  so.  The 
seizure  was  accomplished  by  Captain  Simpson  in  ac- 


176     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

cordance  with  the  command  to  ''use  no  force,"  al- 
though one  of  the  Dutch  captains,  a  fine  bearded  Viking 
of  a  man,  at  first  received  the  polite  demand  for  his 
vessel  with  a  roar  of  defiance.  I  feel  sure  that  in 
his  heart  Captain  Simpson  sympathized  with  him. 
Holland  was  neutral,  and  the  Dutch  captains  did  not 
know  that  their  home  government  was  acquiescent. 
Nor,  for  that  matter,  did  the  Dutch  of  the  neighboring 
colonies  of  Java,  Borneo,  and  Sumatra,  and  one  of  the 
results  of  the  ill-feeling  thus  engendered  was  a  gas- 
olene famine  in  the  Philippines.  The  Dutch  in  those 
islands  refused,  for  several  months,  to  send  us  any- 
more cargoes  of  gasolene,  despite  our  assurances  that 
no  further  seizures  of  their  ships  would  be  made. 

The  years  of  our  participation  in  the  war  were  busy 
ones  for  American  officials  in  the  Philippines.  The 
seizure  of  Germans  and  Austrians  guilty  of  propa- 
ganda or  otherwise  believed  to  be  undesirable  in  the 
Philippines,  under  the  circumstances  including  vir- 
tually all  of  them  in  the  country,  their  deportation  to 
the  United  States,  the  work  of  censorship  of  the  mails 
and  cables,  the  seizure  of  all  German  property  under 
the  alien-property  custodianship,  the  enforcement  of 
the  Espionage  Act,  the  vexatious  restrictions  upon 
commerce,  the  severe  regulations  upon  passports  and 
letters  of  clearance  for  vessels — all  the  machinery  of 
modern  war,  much  of  it  un-American  in  spirit  and 
tradition — were  carried  out  under  directions  or  laws 
from  Washington  by  the  American  representatives  in 
the  islands.  In  a  narrative  dealing  with  Filipino  self- 
government,  these  activities  have  little  significance, 
except  that  they  were  all  acquiesced  in  willingly 
enough  by  the  Filipino  people,  as  part  of  the  frame- 


ea 

Eh  ; 

0 


INCIDENTS  OF  WAR  TIMES  177 

work  of  war  times,  even  though  at  times  it  may  have 
seemed  to  the  Filipinos  that  unnecessary  severity  was 
being  exercised  or  even  injustice  was  being  done. 

Truth  to  tell,  the  Germans  in  the  Philippines  had 
never  been  unpopular  with  the  Filipinos,  whose  great 
prophet  Kizal  had  studied  in  Berlin,  and  received  rec- 
ognition by  the  scientific  circles  there ;  his  friend  Pro- 
fessor Blumentritt  in  Austria  had  written  papers  so 
sympathetic  to  the  Filipino  people  that  they  had  made 
almost  a  legend  of  his  name.  German  business  men 
had  invested  much  money  in  the  Philippines,  and  had 
a  high  standing  in  the  Filipino  community.  They  were 
without  that  race  arrogance  to  which  tropical  peoples 
are  unfortunately  accustomed  in  other  European 
races.  The  German  commercial  method  of  studying  the 
wants  of  the  new  markets,  in  contrast  to  the  older  cus- 
toms of  forcing  the  home  customs  and  styles  down 
the  throats  of  the  prospective  customers,  was  bearing 
fruit.  Personal  relations  with  Germans  in  the  islands 
were  agreeable,  and  marriages  of  Germans  with  Fili- 
pinos had  been  exceptionally  happy.  Whether  the  Ger- 
mans were  good  colonizers  or  not,  I  have  no  personal 
basis  for  judging,  never  having  visited  a  German  col- 
ony ;  reports  of  the  model  German  city  of  Tsingtau,  and 
the  extraordinary  devotion  of  the  natives  of  German 
East  Africa  to  the  gallant  Von  Lettow  during  the  war 
are  certainly  evidence  in  their  favor. 

During  the  winter  and  spring  of  1914  a  German  fleet 
had  been  stationed  in  Manila  Bay,  consisting  of  the 
Leipsig,  the  Sharnhorst,  the  Gneisenau,  and  a  small 
war-vessel,  the  Cormorant,  which  was  subsequently 
blown  up  by  her  German  commander  in  Guam  Harbor 
to  prevent  her  being  seized  by  the  American  officers. 


178     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

The  admiral  in  command  was  the  famous  Count  von 
Spee,  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  war.  Of  Danish  descent, 
he  had  all  the  charm  of  personality  we  expect  in  the 
Danes.  He  was  immensely  popular  in  Manila  society, 
and  we  followed  his  career  with  the  deepest  interest, 
— his  defeat  of  Admiral  Craddock  off  the  coast  of  Chile, 
when  the  British  fleet  was  sunk,  and  the  subsequent 
complete  destruction  of  his  whole  command  off  the 
Falkland  Islands  by  the  British  battle-cruisers,  in 
which  engagement  Von  Spee  and  his  two  sons  went 
down  with  their  ships.  As  illustrating  Von  Spee's 
chivalry,  the  account  of  the  dinner  at  Santiago  de 
Chile  the  day  after  the  victory  over  Craddock  is  but 
little  known.  The  German  consul  at  the  banquet  given 
in  his  honor  rose  and  proposed  the  toast,  * '  To  hell  with 
the  British  Navy."  The  victorious  Von  Spee  at  once 
sprang  to  his  feet,  and  with  all  his  officers  left  the 
banquet-hall. 

The  German  consul  in  Manila  had  been  Dr.  Franz 
Zitelmann,  whose  authority,  as  we  learned  later,  had 
been  somewhat  circumscribed,  by  that  powerful  but 
unofficial  organ  of  the  German  Government,  the  Manila 
branch  of  the  commercial  house  of  Behn,  Meyer,  and 
Company.  While  rather  stiff  and  reserved  socially, 
Dr.  Zitelmann  was  a  cultivated  and  highly  trained 
official.  I  had  been  obliged  on  more  than  one  occasion, 
during  the  years  of  our  neutrality,  to  caution  both  the 
British  consul-general  and  the  German  consul  that 
their  zeal  was  leading  them  to  unwarranted  aggression 
upon  our  Government.  After  the  rupture  of  diplo- 
matic relations,  I  had  the  duty  of  conveying  to  Dr. 
Zitelmann  the  orders  for  his  recall.  He  received  the 
momentous  news  with  much  dignity.    He  was  allowed 


INCIDENTS  OF  WAR  TIMES  179 

passage  on  a  United  States  Transport  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, as  was  later  his  wife,  though  neither  of  them  was 
allowed  ashore  by  the  Japanese  at  Nagasaki.  I  after- 
ward had  a  letter  from  Dr.  Zitelmann,  upon  the  point 
of  embarking  from  Hoboken  for  Germany  just  before 
our  declaration  of  war ;  he  thanked  me  for  the  manner 
in  which  his  departure  from  Manila  had  been  ar- 
ranged. 

A  picturesque  German  personality  of  war  times  de- 
serves mention  here, — Captain  Sorensen.  He  had  been 
the  captain  of  the  German  steamer  Marie  which  landed 
a  cargo  of  arms  and  ammunition  for  the  hard-pressed 
Von  Lettow  in  German  East  Africa  in  1916,  and  es- 
caped with  his  ship  to  a  neutral  port  in  Java.  On 
January  1,  1917,  Sorensen  with  four  German  com- 
panions was  cast  ashore  at  Davao  Bay,  having  sailed 
in  a  small  open  boat  through  the  Celebes  Sea.  They 
were  arrested  for  violation  of  the  immigration  laws, 
and  later  released.  Sorensen  disguised  himself  as  a 
waiter  on  an  American  army  transport  and  got  as  far 
as  Honolulu  before  he  was  discovered  and  sent  back  to 
Manila.  He  was  subsequently  one  of  the  six  hundred 
or  more  enemy  subjects  we  deported  to  the  United 
States  for  internment  at  the  detention  camp  at  Hot 
Springs,  Arkansas. 

Another  much-discussed  German  in  the  Philippines 
was  Andre,  vice-consul  at  Cebu;  I  had  reason  to 
believe  that  he  was  engaged  in  trying  to  organize 
a  Filipino  revolt  in  the  southern  islands,  where  he  was 
widely  known  and  very  popular.  Just  at  that  time,  the 
United  States  Espionage  Act  was  passed  and  made 
effective  in  the  Philippines.  I  wired  to  the  Governor 
of  Cebu,  General  Roa,  who  was  the  sheriff  of  the 


180     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

province  by  virtue  of  his  office  as  governor,  to  arrest 
Andre.  He  seized  him  and  then  wired  that  the  Amer- 
ican judge  in  Cebii  had  granted  Andre  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  and  he  would  be  released  in  twenty-four  hours 
if  no  proof  was  meanwhile  given  against  him.  I  replied 
by  cable  to  Governor  Roa  that  the  Espionage  Act, 
just  passed,  suspended  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in 
such  cases,  and  told  him  to  hold  Andre  and  deliver  him 
to  me  in  Manila,  which  he  did.  Andre  was  confined  in 
the  constabulary  barracks  of  Santa  Lucia,  and  when  I 
went  around  to  inspect  I  found  he  was  evidently  not 
suffering  much  personal  hardship  in  his  imprison- 
ment, for  he  was  playing  a  jolly  game  of  tennis  there 
with  three  American  constabulary  officers.  He  was  the 
picture  of  innocence.  He,  also,  was  subsequently  de- 
ported to  the  United  States,  though  the  case  against 
him  was  never  actually  proved. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  Philippines  were  singularly 
free  from  incidents  of  warlike  import  during  these 
years;  had  our  country  entered  the  war  at  the  begin- 
ning, we  should  probably  have  had  a  hostile  visit  from 
the  Emden,  whose  commander  made  such  a  picturesque 
reputation  at  Madras  and  Singapore,  before  the  de- 
struction of  his  ship  off  the  Cocos  Islands  by  an  Aus- 
tralian vessel. 

The  foreign  duties  of  the  Insular  Government  from 
1914  to  1917  were  to  see  that  our  neutrality  was  re- 
spected, which  brought  about  a  number  of  contro- 
versies with  British  officials,  either  through  my  good 
friend  Consul-General  John  B.  Rentiers,  or  through  the 
Department  of  State  in  Washington.  As  is  well  known, 
the  British  Government  has  never  conceded  our  tradi- 
tional contention  for  freedom  of  the  seas,  and  the  sue- 


INCIDENTS  OF  WAR  TIMES  181 

cess  of  the  assertion  of  our  Philippine  neutrality  rights 
in  a  number  of  contested  cases  through  the  State  De- 
partment was  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  desire  of  the 
British  Government  to  conciliate  the  good-will  of  the 
American  administration.  Prompt  assertion  of  the 
American  position  in  protection  of  our  rights  and 
interests  as  a  neutral  nation  was  made  in  every  in- 
stance of  aggression  by  British  officials  or  British 
vessels,  and  we  received  the  full  support  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  State  on  every  point.  The  manifest  ill-feeling 
throughout  the  Orient  at  that  period  between  Amer- 
icans and  British  was  due  more  to  the  working  of  the 
British  "black-list"  than  to  any  other  cause,  and  was 
based  upon  commercial,  not  political,  disputes.  In 
administration  circles  we  had  to  deal  not  only  with 
aggressions  under  the  "black-list,"  but  with  actual 
breaches  of  international  law  in  the  invasion  of  the 
three-mile  limit,  in  the  stoppage  and  search  of  neutral 
vessels,  in  interruption  of  the  mails,  and,  in  one  in- 
stance, with  the  actual  landing  of  an  armed  force  upon 
the  Tawi-Tawi  Islands,  the  nearest  Philippine  terri- 
tory to  North  Borneo.  The  seizure  of  two  German 
civilians  upon  a  Philippine  vessel  in  the  Visayan  Sea 
by  a  British  cruiser  was  vigorously  protested  by  our 
Government;  discussing  this  matter  with  the  British 
admiral  in  person,  I  finally  asked  him  if  he  had  ever 
heard  of  the  Trent  affair,  so  famous  in  history,  and  he 
blandly  replied  that  he  never  had! 


CHAPTER  XII 
Filipino  Loyalty  During  the  War 

ALL  through  the  war,  we  had  not  the  slightest 
anxiety  about  the  attitude  of  the  Filipinos,  and 
little  concern  over  internal  affairs  in  the  Philippines. 
Was  not  the  war  being  fought  for  the  right  of  small 
nations  to  their  independent  existence?  The  coming 
disappointments  of  the  Peace  Conference  were  as  yet 
unexpected  by  the  people  of  the  world  at  large.  The 
professions  of  the  allied  and  associated  powers  as  to 
their  aims  and  purposes  in  the  war  aroused  hopes  and 
aspirations  in  the  hearts  of  mankind  which,  though 
grievously  disappointed  by  the  outcome  of  the  Ver- 
sailles Treaty,  will  not  down  until  the  world  is  settled 
on  new  lines  of  justice  and  tolerance. 

The  Filipinos,  since  the  passage  by  Congress  of 
the  Jones  Act  on  August  29,  1916,  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  United  States  was  the  best  friend  a 
small  nation  could  have.  Had  we  not  generously  and 
unanimously  promised  independence  when  a  stable 
government  was  set  up  in  the  Philippines  ?  Every  sen- 
timent, every  impulse,  every  hope  of  the  Filipinos  was 
enlisted  in  the  cause  of  the  United  States.  Support  of 
the  Government  appeared  unanimous.  What  this 
meant  in  a  material  sense,  it  is  difficult  to  estimate; 
Great  Britain  is  believed  to  have  been  obliged  to  with- 
hold from  the  main  arena  of  war  half  a  million  men 
to  hold  down  discontented  populations  in  her  extensive 

182 


FILIPINO  LOYALTY  DUKING  THE  WAR       183 

colonies.  The  loyalty  of  the  Philippines  meant,  at  the 
very  least,  freedom  from  worry  and  concern  on  the 
part  of  the  home  Government  at  the  time  of  its  great- 
est responsibilities. 

Five  days  after  the  declaration  of  war,  a  telegram 
from  Speaker  Osmena  from  Cebu  stated  that  the  Presi- 
dent's proclamation  "had  been  heard  by  the  Filipinos 
everywhere  with  great  respect  and  unqualified  loy- 
alty," adding  that  he  attributed  this  fact  in  part  to 
the  recent  passage  of  the  Jones  Act.  He  also  stated 
that  one  of  the  most  prominent  Americans  in  the 
islands,  a  former  widely  known  official  of  the  Insular 
Government  had, ' '  at  last  night 's  meeting  of  the  Amer- 
ican Club  here,  made  some  malicious  remarks  on  the 
dealings  of  the  President  regarding  the  war  and  I, 
being  on  the  platform  of  the  speakers,  had  the  priv- 
ilege of  replying  to  the  criticism  through  an  unqual- 
ified endorsement  of  President  Wilson's  policies  both 
domestic  and  international."  This  was  the  keynote 
of  Filipino  gratitude  and  loyalty, — to  defend  the  Amer- 
ican President  who  had  entered  the  war,  even  against 
the  malice  and  abuse  of  his  fellow-countrymen.  This 
was  the  spirit  that  made  it  possible  to  withdraw  Amer- 
ican soldiers  and  American  naval  vessels  from  the 
Philippines  during  the  war,  and  leave  to  the  Filipinos 
the  privilege  of  defending  American  interests  and  the 
American  flag. 

This  was  the  attitude  which  rendered  utterly  abor- 
tive German  attempts  to  stir  up  disaffection  among  the 
people  of  the  islands,  or  to  use  the  Philippines  as  a 
base  for  plots  against  the  security  of  neighboring  col- 
onies of  the  allied  powers.  What  that  meant  to  our 
country  may  be  guessed  by  reflection  upon  what  had 


184     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

happened  in  Singapore  in  1915.  The  Governor  of  the 
Straits  Settlements  told  me  in  1916  that  the  insurrec- 
tion of  the  Sepoy  regiments  in  Singapore,  which  had 
taken  possession  of  the  city  and  shot  many  of  the 
white  residents,  had  been  organized  and  promoted  by 
the  local  branch  of  the  German  " commercial' '  firm  of 
Behn,  Meyer,  and  Company.  Upon  that  occasion,  the 
British  residents  were  finally  saved  by  the  landing  of 
marines  from  a  Japanese  warship  which  happened  to 
be  in  the  harbor  at  the  time.  No  such  incident  could 
have  occurred  in  the  Philippines,  because  of  the  loyalty 
of  the  people  for  the  United  States.  Even  the  pictur- 
esque attempt  of  the  mysterious  American  schooner 
Henry  S.  to  carry  arms  and  ammunition  from  the  Ger- 
man merchant  vessels  in  Manila  Harbor  to  near-by  col- 
onies, utterly  failed  in  1915. 

On  May  5,  1917,  a  parade  was  held  in  Manila  by 
about  fifteen  thousand  Filipinos.  These  later  gathered 
in  front  of  the  governor-general  's  residence,  and 
speeches  were  made  expressing  their  devotion  to  the 
American  cause.  The  special  session  of  the  Legislature, 
and  the  attempts  to  form  a  division  of  the  National 
Guard  for  foreign  service,  as  an  expression  of  the 
general  Filipino  sentiment,  have  already  been  de- 
scribed. These  having  failed,  through  obstructions  and 
delays  previously  mentioned, — in  which  the  Filipinos 
had  no  part  and  which  bitterly  wounded  their  self- 
respect  and  offended  their  spirit  of  generosity, — the 
active  participation  of  the  people  of  the  islands  was 
slight  indeed.  Many  Filipinos  had  enlisted  in  the  army 
and  the  navy,  and  some  of  them  gave  their  lives  on 
the  field  of  action,  such  as  Tomas  Claudio,  Dadison, 
Manalo,  Ubrantes,  and  others;  but  as  an  entity  the 


FILIPINO  LOYALTY  DURING  THE  WAR       185 

Philippines  were  not  allowed  to  take  an  active  part 
in  the  war.  They  were  far  from  the  stirring  events  of 
active  campaigns,  since  the  German  Navy  had  already 
been  swept  from  the  seas,  and  the  Japanese  had  taken 
over  the  German  base  at  near-by  Tsingtau. 

"When  the  Legislature  met  again  in  regular  session, 
in  the  autumn  of  1917,  a  resolution  was  promptly 
adopted  setting  forth  "the  unequivocal  expression  of 
the  loyalty  of  the  people  of  these  Islands  to  the  cause 
of  the  United  States  of  America, ' '  which,  as  the  resolu- 
tion stated, 

is  based  on  the  evident  justice  of  the  enforced  intervention 
of  the  American  people  in  this  war,  in  which  they  have  been 
guided  solely  by  the  supreme  interest  of  defending  universal 
democracy  and  upholding  the  right  of  the  small  nations  to 
live  in  confidence  and  security  under  their  own  governments, 
safe  from  the  threats  and  perils  of  autocracy  and  imperialism. 
We  firmly  believe  that  the  final  triumph  of  democracy,  in 
securing  for  the  world  the  principle  of  nationality  for  the 
benefit  of  the  small  nations,  will,  finally,  enable  our  people  to 
attain  the  ideals  for  which  we  have  always  struggled,  namely, 
our  constitution  into  a  free  and  independent  nation,  with  a 
democratic  government  of  law  and  order,  ready  to  be  another 
instrument  of  democracy  and  universal  progress. 

To  this,  President  Wilson  replied: 

Please  convey  to  the  Philippine  Legislature,  in  warmest 
terms,  my  appreciation  of  its  admirable  resolutions.  .  .  . 

A  fortnight  later  the  Legislature  adopted  joint  reso- 
lution No.  7,  as  follows: 

That  the  Governor-General  be,  and  hereby  is,  authorized  to 
take  all  necessary  steps  for  the  earliest  possible  construction, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
and  at  the  expense  of  the  treasury  of  the  Philippine  Islands, 
of  a  modern  submarine  and  a  modern  destroyer  which  shall, 


186     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

as  soon  as  available,  be  offered  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  for  service  in  Philippine  waters  or  elsewhere,  as  said 
President  may  require  or  authorize. 

Six  months  later  this  act  was  formerly  approved  by 
the  President,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1919  the  fine  new- 
type  destroyer  Rizal  was  launched  from  the  Union 
Iron  Works  in  San  Francisco  and  later  commissioned 
and  put  in  service,  officered  by  Americans  and  manned 
by  Filipinos,  in  American  waters.    The  frequent  offers 
of  the  Philippine  Government  to  pay  for  this  destroyer 
were  not  accepted  by  the  United  States  Government, 
so  the  Filipino  people  now  have  no  claim  to  the  pos- 
session of  this  vessel,  which  was  intended  to  serve  as 
the  nucleus  of  a  future  Philippine  navy;  meanwhile  it 
would  have  been  of  the  utmost  service  in  putting  a  stop 
to  the  wholesale  smuggling  of  opium  from  the  govern- 
ment  monopoly   of   British   North   Borneo   into   the 
southern  islands  of  the  Philippines.  The  proffered 
submarine  was  never  constructed.    The  reception  of 
the  Filipinos'  offer  of  a  submarine  and  a  destroyer 
was,  to  say  the  least,  half-hearted  on  the  part  of  Wash- 
ington officials,  and  it  is  difficult  to  calculate  how  much 
of  this  lukewarmness  was  due  to  overwhelming  preoc- 
cupation in  far  greater  matters,  and  how  much  to 
reluctance  in  certain  quarters  in  America  to  advance 
or  further  encourage  the   development  of  Filipino 
nationalism. 

While,  as  we  have  thus  seen,  the  Filipinos  had  no 
opportunity  to  participate  actively  in  the  wonderful 
military  achievements  of  the  United  States,  their 
cooperation  in  the  subsidiary  activities  of  war  was 
spontaneous  and  whole-hearted. 
Upon  the  suggestion  of  Secretary  Baker,  a  local 


FILIPINO  LOYALTY  DURING  THE  WAR       187 

branch  of  the  Council  of  National  Defense  was  organ- 
ized, consisting  of  twenty-four  Americans  and  ten 
Filipino  members,  with  the  end  in  view  of  ' '  coordinat- 
ing the  resources  and  energies  of  the  country  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  war."  It  served,  as  in  the  United 
States,  as  the  official  agency  for  all  war  work  not  al- 
ready covered  by  the  executive  departments.  Through 
this  agency,  German  propaganda  and  insinuations  were 
combated  and  stamped  out;  a  speakers*  bureau  was 
formed  to  educate  the  people  as  to  the  causes  of  the 
war  and  the  aims  of  the  United  States  in  the  war; 
campaigns  were  launched  for  the  Liberty  Loans ;  War- 
Savings  stamps  and  Red-Cross  drives  were  organized ; 
public  and  private  economy  was  encouraged,  sedition 
prevented,  and  Americanization  instilled  throughout 
the  islands. 

By  this  time  the  war  enthusiasm  was  in  full  swing 
throughout  the  Philippines.  All  elements,  with  a  few 
exceptions  in  the  ranks  of  the  German- Americans  or 
among  other  people  of  foreign  birth,  were  enthusias- 
tically at  work  in  war  efforts.  The  Americans  promptly 
buried  all  political  or  factional  differences  for  the 
duration  of  the  war,  and  cooperated  with  the  Govern- 
ment, both  federal  and  insular,  with  the  utmost  unself- 
ishness and  energy.  There  was  a  great  exodus  from 
the  ranks  of  the  Philippine  service  for  commissions  in 
the  army,  and  most  of  the  American  constabulary 
officers,  engineers  of  the  Bureau  of  Public  Works,  and 
numerous  other  American  residents  entered  the  army ; 
many  of  these  men  stayed  on  in  the  army  after  the 
war,  especially  those  who  came  from  the  constabulary, 
and  I  know  of  no  finer  material  than  those  men 
who  were  thus  contributed  from  the  Philippine  service. 


188     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

The  Insular  Government,  naturally,  suffered  a  con- 
siderable loss  in  efficiency  by  the  withdrawal  of  so 
many  experienced  and  valuable  officials  from  the  sev- 
eral departments  of  the  permanent  service. 

The  zeal  and  activity  of  the  local  Council  of  National 
Defense,  and  its  agents  and  "four-minute  speakers,' ' 
both  American  and  Filipino;  its  mail  news  bulletin 
service,  paid  for  by  the  Philippine  Legislature;  its 
activity  in  locating  and  stamping  out  disloyal  utter- 
ances,   compared    favorably    with    the    whole-souled 
work  done  in  the  United  States  at  the  same  time.  So 
zealous  did  certain  agencies  become  that  it  was  difficult, 
especially  in  the  matter  of  deportations  of  enemy  sub- 
jects, to  observe  any  judicial  calm,  and  protect  individ- 
uals against  obvious  injustice.  Those  who  were  in  the 
United    States    during   these    exciting   months    will 
recognize  the  symptoms  and  understand  the  psychol- 
ogy of  this  war  phenomenon.  The  Military  Information 
Division  of  the  army  in  Manila  was  so  eager  to  search 
out  Germans  or  Austrians  for  internment  and  deporta- 
tion, that  they  pressed  me  to  deport  substantially  all 
those  residents  of  the  Philippines  with  German  names, 
including  several  highly  patriotic  American  govern- 
ment officials.  It  made  no  difference  to  these  army 
agents  whether  their  list  contained  numbers  of  Amer- 
ican citizens :  they  sounded  German ;  that  was  sufficient. 
So  impatient  did  they  finally  become  with  me  that  the 
commanding  general  asked  Washington  to  take  that 
work  out  of  my  hands,  and  give  it  to  the  army,  a 
request  to  which  no  attention  appears  to  have  been 
paid  in  the  War  Department,  since  the  Department  of 
Justice  was  already  uneasy  over  the  stream  of  German 


FILIPINO  LOYALTY  DURING  THE  WAR       189 

and  Australian  civilian  " prisoner s"  from  the  Philip- 
pines. 

The  drives  for  Liberty  Loans  and  the  Red  Cross 
were  so  enthusiastically  conducted  and  received  that 
the  Philippines  rather  overstrained  their  own  re- 
sources in  contributions  for  these  purposes,  and  this 
has  been  one  of  the  causes  of  the  financial  indigestion 
of  the  islands  ever  since.  In  the  Liberty  Loan  cam- 
paign, nearly  40,000,000  pesos  of  the  various  issues 
were  sold  in  the  Philippines;  local  payments  for  the 
Alien  Property  Custodian,  and  for  transmission  to 
the  Red  Cross  Society  at  home,  took  an  additional 
10,000,000  pesos  at  least  from  the  comparatively 
slender  resources  of  the  Philippines.  Americans,  indi- 
vidually and  through  such  organizations  as  the  Elks 
Club,  vied  with  Filipinos,  British,  Chinese,  Japanese, 
Syrians,  and  Swiss  in  their  work  for  the  Liberty  Loans ; 
the  T.  Daniel  Frawley  Opera  Company,  which  was 
visiting  Manila  that  season,  helped  on  the  good  work. 
On  October  12th,  designated  by  President  Wilson  as 
Liberty  Day,  seventy  thousand  people  of  a  dozen  dif- 
ferent nationalities  took  part  in  a  parade.  Five  days 
later  the  campaign  for  the  Fourth  Liberty  Loan  closed 
with  the  islands'  subscriptions  reaching  the  figure  of 
23,247,000  pesos,  or  more  than  double  the  quota  allotted 
to  the  Philippines.  Of  this  sum,  about  9,000,000  pesos 
came  from  provinces  where  fully  ninety-five  per  cent. 
of  the  subscribers  were  Filipinos. 

The  food-production  campaign  instituted  under  the 
Council  of  National  Defense,  and  directed  by  Dr. 
Gralicano  Apacible,  the  Secretary  of  the  Department 
of   Agriculture    and    National    Resources,    not    only 


190     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

effected  a  far  larger  production  of  staple  food  crops, 
but  vastly  increased  the  area  and  numbers  of  vegetable 
gardens,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  public 
schools  and  the  boys'  and  girls'  agricultural  clubs. 
The  productive  school  gardens  were  increased  to  more 
than  400,000,  while  103,000  boys  and  girls  were  en- 
gaged in  home  gardening  with  an  area  of  4122  acres 
under  cultivation.  Another  distinct  and  permanent 
benefit  of  these  war  activities  was  the  expansion  of  the 
membership  of  the  Woman's  Club,  which,  organized  in 
Manila  under  patriotic  American  leadership,  rapidly 
extended  throughout  the  provinces  and  gained  a  perma- 
nent increase  in  membership  in  all  important  centers. 
This  gave  the  Filipina,  for  the  first  time,  the  opportu- 
nity, of  which  she  has  since  so  eagerly  availed  herself, 
to  participate  in  public  meetings  and  take  part  in 
organized  works  for  public  welfare  and  civic  improve- 
ment. This  is  bound  to  result  in  a  decided  benefit  to 
Philippine  public  life. 

These  war  campaigns  thus,  in  their  lessons  of  pa- 
triotism, of  unselfishness,  and  of  giving,  in  the  custom 
of  public  service,  and  in  the  enlistment  of  the  Filipino 
in  one  common  purpose  and  achievement,  are  certain  to 
have  a  permanent  and  beneficial  effect  upon  the  future 
of  the  islands.  The  contributions  made  by  individuals 
for  purposes  of  charity  and  public  welfare,  had  al- 
ways in  the  past  been  confided  to  priests,  or  agents 
of  the  Church ;  now,  for  almost  the  first  time,  the  people 
generally  contributed  directly  to  public  purposes.  The 
conscious,  organized  effort,  in  which  all  elements  of 
the  population  were  encouraged  to  take  part,  resulted 
in  a  strengthening  of  the  feeling  of  national  life.   It 


FILIPINO  LOYALTY  DURING  THE  WAR       191 

is  said  that  the  war  left  no  country  in  the  world 
exactly  as  it  was  before ;  even  the  Philippines,  remote 
from  the  scene  of  conflict,  have  felt  and  responded  to 
the  new  spirit  of  the  age. 


CHAPTER  Xin 

The  Jones  Act 

IN  the  preamble  to  the  Jones  Act,  by  almost  unani- 
mous vote  of  both  parties,  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  declared : 

Whereas  it  was  never  the  intention  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  in  the  incipiency  of  the  war  with  Spain  to  make 
it  a  war  of  conquest  or  for  territorial  aggrandizement ;  and 

Whereas  it  is,  as  it  has  always  been,  the  purpose  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  to  withdraw  their  sovereignty 
over  the  Philippine  Islands  and  to  recognize  their  independ- 
ence as  soon  as  a  stable  government  can  be  established  therein ; 
and 

Whereas  for  the  speedy  accomplishment  of  such  purpose 
it  is  desirable  to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  people  of  the  Philip- 
pines as  large  a  control  of  their  domestic  affairs  as  can  be 
given  them  without,  in  the  meantime,  impairing  the  exercise 
of  the  rights  of  sovereignty  by  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
in  order  that,  by  the  use  and  exercise  of  popular  franchise  and 
governmental  powers,  they  may  be  the  better  prepared  to  fully 
assume  the  responsibilities  and  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of 
complete  independence:   Therefore  .  .  . 

On  August  29,  1916,  the  bill  became  a  law,  and 
crowned  with  success  the  labor  of  many  years  of  the 
devoted  Representative  William  A.  Jones  of  Virgina, 
the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Insular  Affairs  of 
the  House,  and  Senator  Gilbert  M.  Hitchcock  of  Ne- 
braska, the  head  of  the  Senate  Committee. 

The  bill  in  its  final  form  was  in  the  nature  of  a 
victory  for  the  House,  because  the  Senate,  by  the 

192 


THE  JONES  ACT  193 

deciding  vote  of  Vice-President  Marshall  and  sup- 
ported by  Senators  Kenyon,  McCumber,  and  La 
Follette  from  the  Republican  side  had  previously 
added  the  Clarke  Amendment,  proposed  by  Senator 
Clarke  of  Arkansas,  around  which  a  great  political 
battle  raged  in  the  House.  This  amendment  conferred 
complete  and  unqualified  independence  upon  the  Phil- 
ippines in  not  less  than  two  years  and  not  more  than 
four  years  from  the  date  of  the  approval  of  the  act; 
it  contained,  when  first  introduced,  a  temporary  guar- 
anty of  independence.  President  Wilson  had  supported 
the  Clarke  Amendment  after  its  adoption  by  the 
Senate,  and  had  urged  acceptance  of  it  upon  those 
members  of  the  House  who  were  understood  to  be 
opposed.  This,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  prin- 
cipal cause  of  the  resignation  of  Lindley  M.  Garrison, 
Secretary  of  War,  who  considered  the  Clarke  Amend- 
ment too  radical.  On  May  2,  1916,  the  Clarke 
Amendment  was  defeated  and  struck  from  the  bill  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  by  a  vote  of  213  to  165. 
About  28  Democrats  bolted  the  party  leadership  and 
voted  with  the  majority  of  the  Republicans  against 
independence;  these  bolting  members  were  virtually 
all  members  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  and  it  is 
understood  that  their  attitude  was  the  result  of  inter- 
vention by  Cardinal  James  Gibbons  of  Baltimore, 
acting,  it  is  supposed,  at  the  instigation  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical authorities  in  the  Philippines. 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  long  history  of  the 
islands  had  accustomed  the  Filipinos  to  church  inter- 
vention in  politics,  for  there  was  no  active  campaign 
of  attack  or  reprisal  of  any  sort  upon  the  church 
there.    The  present  archbishop,  Monsignor  0  'Doherty, 


194     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

has  frequently  announced  himself  as  being  in  favor 
of  independence,  so  the  opponents  of  independence 
cannot,  it  is  probable,  count  upon  the  solid  influence 
of  the  Church  upon  any  subsequent  occasion. 

One  of  the  most  telling  answers  to  this  Irish-Amer- 
ican defeat  of  Philippine  independence  was  made  by 
Senate  President  Quezon  at  the  St.  Patrick's  day  ban- 
quet in  Manila  in  the  next  year.  All  the  local  digni- 
taries of  the  Church  were  there,  and  most  of  the 
speeches  had  touched  on  the  subject  of  the  freedom 
of  Ireland.  Mr.  Quezon's  speech  consisted  of  thirteen 
words;  he  said:  "We  Filipinos  wish  for  your  Irish- 
men the  same  independence  you  wished  for  us." 

Senator  Warren  Q.  Harding,  permanent  Chairman 
of  the  Republican  Convention,  on  June  8, 1916,  referred 
to  the  recent  defeat  of  the  Clarke  Amendment  as  an 
effort  of  the  Democratic  administration  "to  renounce 
its  guardianship  of  a  race  of  people  and  leave  them 
to  walk  alone  when  they  had  not  been  taught  fully 
to  creep.  A  few  rebellious  Democrats,"  he  added, 
"joined  the  Republican  minority  in  sparing  us  this 
national  disgrace."  He  then  made  some  eloquent 
denunciations  of  "hauling  down  the  flag." 

In  the  Philippines,  during  these  months  of  debate 
in  Congress,  there  were  the  most  intense  interest  and 
excitement.  A  few  of  the  richer  Filipinos,  especially  of 
the  mestizo  type,  were  frightened  at  the  prospect  of  the 
sudden  independence  promised  in  the  Clarke  Amend- 
ment. The  bulk  of  the  people,  and  most  of  the  leaders, 
supported  it  solidly.  A  characteristic  note  was  struck 
by  the  late  Don  Antonio  R.  Roxas,  the  best-known 
Filipino  millionaire.  Some  of  the  financiers  had  en- 
deavored to  persuade  him  that  independence  would 


THE  JONES  ACT  195 

bring  disaster  upon  the  rich;  he  replied:  "I  don't 
believe  it,  but  if  it  did,  I  would  be  ready  to  sacrifice 
my  last  centavo  for  the  freedom  of  my  country." 

The  final  passage  of  the  Jones  Bill  was  by  almost 
unanimous  vote  of  both  parties.  The  bolt  in  the 
House  had  destroyed  the  fixing  of  a  date  for  inde- 
pendence, but  the  preamble  contained  the  promise  of 
independence  when  a  "stable  government  was  estab- 
lished." Representative  Jones  cabled  Speaker 
Osmena : 

I  congratulate  the  Philippine  people  through  you  upon  the 
final  enactment  by  Congress  of  the  fundamental  legislation 
giving  to  them  the  substance  of  self-government  and  the  solemn 
assurance  that  in  due  time  complete  independence  will  be 
theirs.  It  practically  confers  upon  the  Filipinos  the  power 
to  determine  when  they  shall  take  their  place  among  the  inde- 
pendent nations  of  the  world. 

The  advocates  of  independence  in  the  United  States 
felt  that  a  great  step  forward  had  been  taken;  the 
opponents  that  the  evil  day  had  been  postponed.  Cer- 
tain shrewd  lawyers  tried  to  belittle  the  promises  of 
the  preamble  because,  they  argued,  it  was  not  in  the 
body  of  the  bill,  and  could  not  bind  the  American  peo- 
ple. Such  chicanery,  unworthy  of  those  who  deal  with 
the  faith  or  honor  of  a  nation,  made  no  permanent  im- 
pression upon  the  discussions  of  Philippine  policy. 

Any  one  who  was  present  in  the  Philippines  during 
those  days  will  forever  remember  the  outburst  of 
wild  enthusiasm  of  the  people.  In  every  possible 
way  demonstration  was  made  of  their  pride,  satisfac- 
tion, and  gratitude  for  the  self-government  granted. 
Local  American  opposition  was  for  the  moment 
stilled ;  Congress  had  spoken  in  no  undecided  tone,  and, 


196     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

after  all,  had  they  not  escaped  the  Clarke  Amendment1? 
Eesident  Commissioner  Quezon  returned  to  Manila  a 
real  popular  hero;  he  received  ovations  on  all  sides. 
Soon  thereafter  the  election  was  held  for  the  new 
Senate  which  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  appointive 
commission,  and  the  first  all-Filipino  Legislature  came 
into  effect  on  October  16,  1916.  The  ceremonies  were 
held  in  front  of  the  Ayuntamiento  before  an  immense 
crowd  which  filled  Plaza  McKinley.  In  the  new  Legis- 
lature sat  three  Moros,  an  Ifugao,  and  an  Igorot, 
symbolizing  the  increasing  unity  of  the  Filipino  people. 
The  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter  of  the  Jones  Act  was 
to  turn  over  to  the  Filipinos  most  of  the  powers  of 
government  of  their  own  internal  affairs.  There  were 
still  restrictions  upon  their  borrowing  capacity  in  the 
new  charter,  and  Congress  retained  the  final  right  to 
annul  any  law  they  passed, — a  right  never  yet  exer- 
cised, and  most  unlikely  to  be  employed  under  any 
circumstances.  The  governor-general,  the  vice-gov- 
ernor, the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  auditor 
and  deputy  auditor  were  still  to  be  appointees  of  the 
President;  all  the  other  officers  were  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Filipinos,  either  directly  or  by  the  right 
of  confirmation  of  nominations  of  the  governor-gen- 
eral, bestowed  by  the  new  constitution  upon  the 
Philippine  Senate.  This  was  the  point  over  which 
most  opposition  was  encountered  in  Washington;  if 
I  can  justly  claim  any  influence  upon  the  form  of  the 
Philippine  Constitution,  it  is  perhaps  in  this  particular. 
I  urged  in  season  and  out  that  the  Philippine  Senate 
be  given  this  right,  so  that  never  again  might  the 
people  of  the  islands  be  ridden  over  against  their  will 


THE  JONES  ACT  197 

by  officials  booted  and  spurred  with  hostility  and  race 
prejudice. 

The  organization  of  the  new  government  will  pres- 
ently be  referred  to  at  greater  length.  The  passage 
of  the  Jones  Act  did  not  lay  to  rest  the  incessant 
agitation  and  race  and  party  antagonism  of  the  Phil- 
ippine problem.  It  contained,  on  the  contrary,  the 
germs  of  future  dispute  and  controversy.  The 
preamble  promised  independence  "as  soon  as  a  stable 
government  can  be  established  therein."  What  did 
these  words  mean?  There  can  be  no  doubt  about  the 
phrase  "as  soon  as";  it  is  not  "after"  or  "when" 
but  means  immediately  upon  the  fulfilment  of  the 
required  condition.  What,  then,  is  a  stable  govern- 
ment! Does  it  mean  a  stable  government  composed 
entirely  of  Filipinos?  If  not,  there  had  been  a  stable 
government  in  the  islands  ever  since  the  American 
occupation.  Evidently  the  intention  was  to  promise 
independence  when  the  new  form  of  government  pre- 
scribed by  the  Jones  Act  had  proved  itself  stable. 
The  whole  controversy,  then,  circles  about  the  word 
"stable."  Who  is  to  be  the  judge  of  this  stability? 
Naturally,  the  United  States  Congress,  which  has  the 
constitutional  right  of  determining  the  final  status  of 
the  Philippines. 

The  arrival  in  the  Philippines  of  members  of  Con- 
gress, even  though  they  are  traveling  for  recreation 
and  not  officially,  or  of  any  persons  who  are  supposed 
to  be  in  touch  with  Congress,  is  the  signal  in  Manila 
for  a  renewal  of  the  controversy.  The  Filipinos  claim 
that  they  have  already,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  five 
years,  established  the  required  "stable"  government, 
and  are   entitled  to  immediate  independence;   those 


198     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

opposed  to  their  aspirations  contend  with  equal  deter- 
mination that  the  stable  government  has  not  yet  been 
established.  So  the  dispute  has  been  transferred  from 
the  question  whether  the  Filipinos  are  "fit  for  self- 
government"  to  this  equally  annoying  and  irritating 
debate  over  stability.  Both  questions  involve  discus- 
sion of  the  "ability"  of  the  Filipinos,  and  call  forth 
more  or  less  angry  or  sneering  criticisms  of  the  people 
and  their  leaders. 

The  basis  is  thus  laid  for  a  quarrel  of  increasing 
intensity,  permitting  as  it  does  the  free  expression 
of  opinion  upon  the  capacity,  character,  and  ability 
of  a  whole  race  of  people.  Was  it  not  Burke  who  said 
that  you  cannot  indict  a  whole  people?  That  is 
exactly  what  many  imperialists  or  retentionists  have 
thought  it  wise  to  do  in  regard  to  the  Filipinos; 
their  statements  are  usually  accompanied  by  a  self- 
satisfied  protestation  of  altruism  and  of  a  regard 
solely  for  the  interest  and  welfare  of  the  Filipinos. 
The  characteristic  dignity  of  manner  and  appearance 
of  self-restraint  of  the  Filipino  race  deceive  the  visit- 
ing critic  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  his  observations  are 
usually  received.  These  people  are  deeply  sensitive, 
and  there  is  a  point  beyond  which  their  acquiescence 
in  these  sage  and  sometimes  hypocritical  summings-up 
of  their  defects  will  not  be  endured.  A  distinguished 
citizen  of  New  York  recently  published  a  book  in 
which  he  devoted  several  chapters  to  the  Filipinos; 
he  had  spent  eight  days  in  the  Philippines,  mostly  at 
the  Manila  Hotel  and  the  Army  and  Navy  Club,  and 
his  conclusions  as  published  were  entirely  unfavorable 
to  Philippine  aspirations.  It  so  happened  that  every 
one  of  his  enumerated  criticisms  was  incorrect  and 


THE  JONES  ACT  199 

based  upon  false  evidence  purposely  given  him  by 
the  retentionist  "junta"  in  Manila.  All  of  this  is 
perfectly  understood  by  the  Filipinos  and  correctly 
estimated  by  them.  How  many  years  of  this  sort  of 
misrepresentation  will  they  cheerfully  and  patiently 
endure?  Fortunately,  they  have  a  clear  conception  of 
the  disinterested  good-will  of  the  American  people  at 
large  toward  them,  so  that  they  still  have  complete 
faith  in  us  as  a  nation. 

What,  then,  are  the  tests  of  a  "stable"  government? 
Must  it  be  a  government  which  under  any  circum- 
stances can  withstand  aggression  from  without,  and  at 
all  times  be  able  to  preserve  its  independence ?  If  so, 
has  there  ever  been  a  stable  government  in  history, 
and  is  there  one  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  to-day? 
Must  it  be  perfect  in  all  its  details?  If  so,  has  the 
human  race  ever  set  up  a  stable  government?  Must 
it  conform  exactly  to  American  standards  of  govern- 
ment? If  that  is  to  be  the  test,  must  it  conform  to  what 
we  Americans  would  like  to  be,  or  to  what  we  know 
of  our  institutions  in  actual  practice?  If  the  latter, 
there  have  been  times  in  our  own  recent  history  when 
that  test  would  not  have  been  approved  even  by  Amer- 
icans. Must  it  be  financially  beyond  criticism  and 
its  credit  above  reproach?  If  so,  how  many  of  the 
great  nations  of  the  world  to-day  could  answer  that 
requirement?  Finally,  must  the  Filipinos  be  judged 
by  a  committee  or  by  persons  known  to  be  resolutely 
opposed  to  their  independence,  or  is  not  the  faith  of 
our  country  involved  in  the  preamble  to  the  Jones  Act? 

At  the  moment  of  present  writing  there  is  in  the 
Philippines  a  commission  sent  out  by  President  Hard- 
ing to  report  to  him  on  present  conditions   there. 


200     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

All  members  of  the  party  are  army  officers,  except  one 
civilian,  a  former  governor-general  noted  for  his 
opposition  to  independence.  General  Wood,  at  a  re- 
cent banquet  in  Manila,  is  reported  as  making  the 
following  definition  of  a  stable  government: 

A  stable  government  means  civic  courage,  courts  of  justice 
which  give  equal  opportunities  to  the  senator  as  well  as  to  the 
simple  tao,  resources  ready  for  disposal  at  any  moment  they 
are  needed  by  the  country,  organization  which  will  enable  the 
country  to  defend  its  integrity,  adequate  hospitals  all  over  the 
Islands  which  are  not  found  in  the  pro  dnces  we  have  just 
visited,  social  organization  which  shows  keen  human  interest 
in  the  protection  of  the  needy  and  the  poor,  effective  public 
sanitation,  common  language,  and  many  others. 

Diogenes,  with  his  lamp,  searched  for  less  than  this ! 

All  of  the  requirements  mentioned  by  General  Wood 
would  be  desirable  in  the  Philippines;  so  they  would 
be  in  the  United  States.  Could  either  country  ever 
fulfil  them  in  the  eyes  of  a  hostile  critic?  Do  any 
of  the  existing  governments  of  the  world  to-day  fulfil 
them?  Would  not  the  "common  language"  bar 
Switzerland,  where  there  are  four  official  languages, 
—French,  German,  Italian  and  Romansh?  One  fourth 
of  the  Canadians  speak  French,  and  English  is  hardly 
understood  in  Quebec.  Would  the  Canadians  relish 
this  test  as  applied  to  them?  Are  they  unfit  for 
independence  because  they  have  not  a  "stable  govern- 
ment ' '  ?  Have  they  ' '  adequate  hospitals ' '  throughout 
the  provinces,  and  an  "organization  which  will  enable 
the  country  to  defend  its  integrity"  against  all  comers? 
Has  Belgium?  Has  the  millennium  yet  arrived  in  any 
part  of  this  troubled  globe?    I  seriously  doubt  it. 

Fortunately,  the  words  "stable  government"  have 
an  exact  definition  when  employed  in  American  official 


THE  JONES  ACT  201 

documents.  This  definition  is  fixed  by  usage  and  hon- 
ored by  tradition ;  it  is  known  to  the  Filipinos  as  it  is 
to  all  the  world,  and  has  been  used  before  Congress  by 
Filipino  representatives.  It  was  employed  by  Presi- 
dent Grant  in  his  statement  of  foreign  relations,  and 
later  reaffirmed  by  Elihu  Root  when  he  was  Secretary 
of  State.  It  declares  a  stable  government  to  be  one 
which  is  elected  by  the  suffrages  of  the  people,  is 
supported  generally  by  the  people,  and  is  capable  of 
maintaining  order  and  of  fulfilling  its  international 
obligations.  The  present  Philippine  Government  ful- 
fils the  last  requirements;  it  is  supported  generally 
by  the  people  of  the  islands,  is  capable  of  maintaining 
order  and  does  so,  and  is  able  to  discharge  its  inter- 
national obligations,  having  a  due  regard  to  the  safety 
of  foreign  residents  and  their  investments;  it  can 
fulfil  the  first  requirement  of  being  chosen  by  the 
people  just  as  soon  as  the  United  States  removes  its 
governor-general  and  soldiers,  and  permits  the  Fil- 
ipinos to  elect  the  first  President  of  the  Philippine 
Republic. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

The  New  Filipino  Govebnment 

THE  elections  for  the  new  senators  on  October  3, 
1916,  resulted  in  a  great  victory  for  the  Nacional- 
ista  party,  which  had  already  in  the  election  of  Jnne 
preceding  retained  complete  control  in  the  Assembly, 
now  to  be  called  the  House  of  Representatives.  All 
but  two  of  the  twenty-two  elected  senators  were  can- 
didates of  the  Nacionalista  party;  the  Speaker  of  the 
House  was  the  president  of  that  party,  and  the  new 
President  of  the  Senate,  Manuel  L.  Quezon,  was  its 
vice-president.  The  way  was  clear  for  a  prompt  de- 
cision upon  the  form  of  the  new  government.  Secre- 
tary Baker,  in  his  telegram  of  congratulation  to  the 
new  Legislature,  had  called  them  "in  the  Orient,  the 
successors  of  that  Continental  Congress  which  more 
than  a  hundred  years  ago  established  free  institutions 
in  America."  The  members  felt  a  very  solemn  sense 
of  responsibility  concerning  their  new  powers. 

To  the  new  Legislature  the  power  was  given  by  the 
Jones  Act  to  "increase  the  number  or  abolish  any 
of  the  executive  departments,  or  make  such  changes 
in  the  names  and  duties  thereof  as  it  may  see  fit, 
and  [it]  shall  provide  for  the  appointment  and  removal 
of  the  heads  of  the  executive  departments  by  the 
Governor-General."  The  use  of  this  power  was  the 
most  important  problem  before  the  body. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  what  the  Filipinos  desired 

202 


THE  NEW  FILIPINO  GOVERNMENT  203 

was  a  responsible  ministry  and  a  form  of  government 
like  that  of  Canada,  where  the  governor-general  is 
a  mere  figurehead.  But  the  Jones  Act  did  not  permit 
this;  in  fact,  it  had  considerably  strengthened  the 
hands  of  the  governor-general,  giving  him  executive 
power  and  control  over  all  departments  of  the  admin- 
istration, and  for  the  first  time  the  veto  power  over 
all  acts  of  the  Legislature,  and,  as  has  just  been  noted, 
the  power  to  nominate  the  heads  of  executive  depart- 
ments. However,  the  spirit  of  the  Jones  Law  was 
without  question  that  of  self-government  for  the  Fili- 
pino people,  and  it  was  incumbent  upon  the  governor- 
general  to  carry  out  the  terms  of  the  act  with  as  much 
consideration  as  possible  for  that  principle.  A  respon- 
sible ministry  was  hardly  feasible,  so  a  means  was 
sought  to  bring  the  cabinet  to  be  constructed  into  as 
close  touch  as  possible  with  the  Legislature.  That  has 
been  generally  recognized  as  one  of  the  defects  of 
the  American  system, — the  complete  separation  of 
executive  and  legislative  functions. 

Vice-Governor  Henderson  S.  Martin  was  in  Wash- 
ington and  insisted,  much  to  our  regret,  upon  resign- 
ing his  office ;  that  left  the  post  open  for  nomination  by 
President  Wilson,  as  prescribed  by  the  new  law,  the 
position  carrying  with  it,  as  its  only  function  while  a 
governor-general  was  in  the  islands,  the  office  of  Secre- 
tary of  Public  Instruction.  Eugene  E.  Reed,  Secre- 
tary of  Commerce  and  Police,  had  accepted  a  position 
as  president  of  the  newly  acquired  government  rail- 
road, the  Manila  Railroad  Company.  Rafael  Palma, 
the  acting  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  had  been  elected 
to  the  Senate,  so  a  new  slate  was  possible  all  around. 
It  was  at  first  decided  to  ask  Speaker  Osmena  to 


204     MY  SEVEN  YEAKS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

enter  the  cabinet  as  the  responsible  party  leader;  he 
had  for  the  past  nine  years  been  the  recognized  leader 
of  the  lower  house,  with  all  the  powers  and  influence 
of  the  office  of  Speaker  of  the  American  House  of 
Representatives  rather  than  those  of  the  non-partizan 
position  known  to  the  British  House  of  Commons. 
After  some  hesitation  Mr.  Osmena  declined,  but  sug- 
gested that  the  Legislature  should  authorize  an  ad- 
ditional legislative  member  of  the  cabinet.  He  ap- 
parently decided  that  he  could  not  hold  the  post,  for 
example,  of  Secretary  of  the  Interior  and  remain 
Speaker,  and  preferred  to  remain  where  he  was,  espe- 
cially in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Senate  had  refused 
to  part  with  its  new  president,  Mr.  Quezon,  to  let  him 
enter  the  cabinet.  Act  No.  2666,  known  as  the  Re- 
organization Act,  passed  both  houses  and  became  a 
law  early  in  November,  1916.  It  rearranged  the  former 
executive  entities,  dividing  Finance  and  Justice  into 
two  separate  departments;  changing  Commerce  and 
Police  so  that  the  constabulary  were  placed  under  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and  establishing  a  secretariat 
of  Commerce  and  Communications;  creating  a  new 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  Natural  Resources, 
and  leaving  the  bureaus  of  Public  Health  and  Public 
Instruction  under  the  vice-governor,  who  was  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  President. 

It  was  finally  decided  to  appoint  Senator  Rafael 
Palma  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  so  that  he  should 
serve  as  a  liason  officer  between  the  executive  and 
legislative  branches.  Further,  all  secretaries  were 
given  the  right  to  appear  before  either  house  of  the 
Legislature  when  summoned.  That  was  all  that  could 
be  accomplished  in  the  direction  of  "responsible  gov- 


THE  NEW  FILIPINO  GOVERNMENT  205 

eminent"  until  the  extra-legal  creation  of  the  Council 
of  State  in  the  following  year.  The  new  cabinet  was 
appointed  on  January  11,  1917,  as  follows :  Assistant 
Secretary  of  Public  Instruction,  Felix  Roxas,  formerly 
Mayor  of  Manila;  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Rafael 
Palma,  President  pro  tern  of  the  Senate;  Assistant, 
Teodore  Kalaw;  Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Com- 
munications, Dionisio  Jakosalem,  Ex-Governor  of 
Cebti ;  Assistant,  Catalino  Lavadia ;  Secretary  of  Jus- 
tice, Victorino  Mapa,  Ex-Secretary  of  Finance  and  Jus- 
tice; Assistant,  Jose  Escaler;  Secretary  of  Finance, 
Alberto  Barretto,  Judge  of  the  Court  of  First  Instance ; 
Assistant,  Miguel  Unson ;  Secretary  of  Agriculture  and 
Natural  Resources,  Dr.  Galicano  Apacible,  Ex-Chair- 
man of  the  Appropriations  Committee  of  the  As- 
sembly; Assistant,  Rafael  Corpus.  A  few  months 
later,  Charles  E.  Yeater  of  Missouri  was  appointed 
Vice-Governor  and  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction  by 
the  President,  and  the  cabinet  was  complete. 

These  secretaries  remained  in  office  during  the  rest 
of  my  service  as  governor-general,  or  more  than  four 
years  longer,  except  that  Don  Victorino  Mapa  became 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  summer  of 
1920  and  Attorney-General  Quintin  Paredes  was  there- 
upon made  Secretary  of  Justice;  and  also  in  the 
autumn  of  1920  Don  Rafael  Palma  surrendered  his 
post  as  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  order  to  be  able 
to  devote  himself  to  private  business.  His  twelve  years 
as  commissioner,  acting  Secretary  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, and  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  where  the 
social  burdens  are  especially  heavy,  had  left  him  almost 
penniless.  Assistant  Secretary  Kalaw  then  became 
head  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 


206    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

So,  during  four  important  years,  in  which  the  added 
strain  of  the  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the 
war  greatly  increased  their  difficulties  in  countless 
directions,  economic  and  commercial,  these  same  men 
presided  over  the  administration  of  the  executive  de- 
partments. A  fixed  term  of  office,  coincident  with  the 
life  of  a  legislature,  and  the  reappointment  of  all  in 
office  at  its  expiration,  obviated  the  criticism  of  in- 
stability of  government  so  frequent  in  the  European 
countries  where  ministries  survive  sometimes  only  a 
few  weeks.  To  be  sure,  these  ministers  were  not 
directly  responsible  to  the  Legislature,  but,  under  the 
circumstances,  they  were  proportionately  of  infinitely 
greater  prestige  and  influence  with  the  lawmakers  than 
are  the  secretaries  of  department  in  Washington,  who 
are  little  more  than  personal  secretaries  of  the  Presi- 
dent. Banking  after  the  presidents  of  the  two  houses, 
these  men  were  looked  upon  by  the  Filipinos  as  their 
highest  representatives,  and  of  them  was  expected  and 
exacted  responsibility  not  only  as  administrators  but 
also  as  the  chosen  leaders  of  a  people  who  were  on  trial 
as  to  the  capacity  of  their  race.  They  responded  with 
serious  acceptance  of  these  responsibilities.  Not  once 
did  an  adverse  vote  or  vote  of  censure  of  one  of  them 
pass  the  Legislature,  or  either  house  thereof;  had 
this  come  to  pass,  the  cabinet  officer  thus  affected  would 
have  resigned,  though  not  by  law  obliged  to  do  so,  as 
having  lost  the  confidence  of  the  Legislature.  Oc- 
casional appearances  of  cabinet  officials  before  com- 
mittees of  the  Legislature  were  usually  connected  with 
the  budget,  annually  presented  by  the  Secretary  of 
Finance.  On  two  different  occasions,  the  Secretaries 
of  Agriculture  and  of  Commerce  came  back  from  the 


THE  NEW  FILIPINO  GOVERNMENT  207 

hearings  somewhat  ruffled  by  their  cross-examination, 
but  I  suspect  that  the  committee  members  had  been 
enjoying  the  process  of  baiting  them  under  examina- 
tion. 

The  positions  of  assistant  secretaries  of  depart- 
ment were  created  with  the  intention  of  having  them 
serve  as  permanent  under  secretaries,  after  the  Eng- 
lish system.  This  plan  did  not  work  out  successfully, 
owing  largely  to  the  fact  that  the  men  originally 
selected  were  of  too  important  a  position  politically, 
and  were  no  doubt  always  hoping  to  be  promoted  in 
the  Government;  there  was  also  some  dissatisfaction 
among  the  under  secretaries  over  the  apparent  sub- 
ordination of  their  positions  to  those  in  the  Legisla- 
ture. Several  changes  in  their  personnel  took  place 
during  these  years. 

The  cabinet  met  every  "Wednesday  morning,  under 
the  presidency  of  the  governor-general.  In  the  absence 
of  a  secretary,  his  under  secretary  sat  in  his  place  with 
full  powers.  Occasional  emergency  meetings  were 
called  at  times  of  need.  Usually  the  cabinet  met  behind 
closed  doors,  though  frequently  public  hearings  were 
held  upon  live  topics.  All  matters  of  general  policy 
were  decided  upon  in  the  cabinet,  and  gradually  the 
Legislature  transferred  to  the  cabinet,  acting  collec- 
tively as  a  unit,  certain  legislative  functions,  such  as 
the  distribution  of  appropriations  where  it  was  seen 
the  elasticity  was  needed.  At  all  cabinet  meetings 
harmony  and  dignity  prevailed,  and  I  cannot  believe 
that  in  any  country,  over  a  similar  period  of  time, 
more  conscientious  or  seriously  patriotic  attention  is 
given  to  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  office  than 
was  given  by  these  men  in  their  years  of  service  as 


208    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

cabinet  officials.  From  the  date  of  adoption  of  the 
Jones  Law  the  administration  in  Washington  conceded 
the  fullest  liberty  of  action  and  freedom  from  inter- 
ference to  the  Philippine  Government.  Especially 
during  the  war  it  operated  almost  as  an  independent 
government,  always,  however,  scrupulously  careful  of 
the  interests  of  America  and  Americans.  The  cabinet 
discussions  ranged  over  the  widest  possible  scale,  touch- 
ing upon  almost  all  those  subjects  which  are  usually 
dealt  with  by  independent  sovereign  countries  except 
foreign  relations.  The  heaviest  single  piece  of  work 
each  year  was  the  preparation  and  introduction  of  the 
budget,  the  budget  system  having  been  adopted  in  1917 
by  the  new  Legislature.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
prior  to  1914  this  function  of  government  had  been 
withheld  from  the  Filipinos.  Alberto  Barretto,  Secre- 
tary of  Finance,  displayed  truly  remarkable  abilities 
in  the  preparation  of  a  scientific  budget,  and  each  year 
it  was  with  reasonable  promptitude  passed  by  the 
Legislature.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  one  of  the  moving 
purposes  of  the  adoption  of  the  budget  system  by  the 
Filipino  Legislature  was  to  avoid  the  introduction  of 
log-rolling  which  has  in  other  countries  caused  such 
scandal  and  damage  to  the  treasury  and  the  public 
morals. 

The  constitution  of  the  Philippine  cabinet  neces- 
sarily removed  the  governor-general  from  such  im- 
mediate contact  with  the  bureau  chiefs  as  had  pre- 
viously existed.  I  observed  some  disposition  to  stand 
upon  their  dignity  on  the  part  of  certain  secretaries, 
upon  those  rare  occasions  when  I  had  through  haste  or 
inadvertence  failed  to  consult  them  before  talking 
over  a  policy  with  one  of  their  bureau  chiefs.    Con- 


<  si 


OLD  COUNCIL  OF  STATE  OF  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS,  JULY,  1920 


NEW  COUNCIL  OF  STATE  OF  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS,  JULY,  1920 


THE  NEW  FILIPINO  GOVERNMENT  209 

sultation  with  officials  concerned  is  a  primary  rule  in 
administration  everywhere,  and  in  all  countries  neglect 
of  it  must  lead  to  irritation,  but  it  is  sometimes  difficult 
to  remember,  and  occasionally  is  a  source  of  delay  in 
action.  Where  a  specific  function  was  conferred  by  the 
Legislature  upon  a  certain  secretary  of  department,  I 
once  or  twice  detected  an  inclination  upon  his  part  to 
consider  the  matter  exclusively  within  his  charge,  but 
I  always  insisted  upon  the  provision  of  the  Jones 
Law  that  "all  executive  functions  of  the  government 
must  be  directly  under  the  Governor-General  or  within 
one  of  the  executive  departments  under  the  super- 
vision and  control  of  the  Governor-General."  As  a 
general  policy,  I  endeavored  to  give  to  the  Filipino 
executives  all  possible  opportunity  to  exercise  their 
own  discretion,  and  even  forced  upon  them  responsibili- 
ties of  decision  and  action  as  frequently  as  possible. 
At  first  some  of  them  displayed  a  tendency  to  undue 
caution  in  their  decisions,  but  the  exercise  of  self- 
government  later  became  perfectly  natural  and  easy 
to  all  of  them, — to  such  a  point,  indeed,  that  at  times 
I  had  to  exercise  all  the  discretion  I  could  summon 
not  to  appear  to  be  interfering  with  them  with  insuffi- 
cient excuse.  Occasions  of  this  sort  arose  with  less 
and  less  frequency  after  the  general  public  gradually 
learned  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  the  governor-gen- 
eral was  not  the  sole  fount  of  authority,  and  that  the 
heads  of  department  must  be  consulted  upon  all  mat- 
ters affecting  their  functions. 

My  relations  with  each  and  every  one  of  these  heads, 
both  official  and  personal,  were  exceedingly  satisfac- 
tory and  harmonious,  and  I  look  back  with  the  deepest 
feeling  of  pleasure  to  the  days  and  years  I  spent  in 


210     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

association  with  them.  We  never  had  a  quarrel  at  a 
cabinet  meeting,  and  never  left  a  subject  until  all  those 
interested  had  been  given  an  opportunity  to  have  their 
say.  It  is  one  of  the  most  curious  features  of  human 
nature  that  however  strongly  a  man  may  feel  upon  a 
given  policy,  he  will  finally  accept  an  adverse  decision 
of  the  majority  if  only  he  has  been  given  an  ample  op- 
portunity to  "get  it  out  of  his  system"  by  stating 
his  views.  There  were  many  days  when  it  must  have 
seemed  tedious  to  the  members  of  the  cabinet  to  pro- 
long discussions  the  ultimate  decision  upon  which  was 
a  foregone  conclusion,  but  the  net  result  was  a  har- 
mony and  good  feeling  which  enabled  us  to  serve  to- 
gether in  friendship  and  without  a  break  through  all 
those  years. 

Upon  no  occasion  did  I  ever  perceive  among  my 
colleagues  in  the  cabinet  any  unworthy  motive  of 
personal  gain  or  personal  advantage,  political  or  finan- 
cial ;  there  was  no  tendency  to  favor  any  given  locality ; 
no  jealousy  of  or  prejudice  against  other  offices  of 
government;  no  playing  of  politics  in  the  unworthy 
sense  of  the  word.  All  were  alike  imbued  with  a  desire 
to  do  the  best  they  could  for  their  whole  country; 
they  displayed  no  hostility  against  any  race  or  class 
of  people,  and  avoided  net  only  the  danger  but  even 
the  appearance  of  being  pushed  by  groups  of  capital- 
ists, either  foreign  or  native. 

So  strong  did  the  cabinet  organization  become  that 
the  leaders  of  the  Filipino  people,  Messrs.  Osmena  and 
Quezon,  soon  decided  to  raise  again  the  question  of 
their  participation  in  this  executive  body. 

Speaker  Osmena,  who  is  a  close  student  of  consti- 
tutional history,  finally  brought  forward  the  plan  of  a 


THE  NEW  FILIPINO  GOVERNMENT  211 

Counsel  of  State,  and  this  was  put  into  effect  by 
executive  order  of  the  governor-general  late  in  1917. 
It  had  been  my  custom,  during  the  three  years 
before  the  Jones  Act  came  into  effect,  to  consult  fre- 
quently, indeed  almost  daily,  with  Speaker  Osmena, 
not  only  as  to  the  qualifications  of  the  Filipinos  se- 
lected for  appointment  to  office,  but  also  as  to  general 
policies  of  administration.  He  was  the  recognized 
leader  of  his  people,  their  highest  elected  representa- 
tive. Association  with  him  had  been  of  the  greatest 
benefit  to  me,  since  his  knowledge  of  Philippine  per- 
sonalities was  unsurpassed,  and,  moreover,  a  decision 
taken  with  his  approval  was  fairly  sure  to  meet  with 
the  support  of  the  Filipino  official  world.  With  the 
new  government,  however,  difficulties  in  the  established 
relations  between  the  governor-general  and  the  Speak- 
er of  the  House  soon  arose.  The  Senate  resented 
intervention  from  one  outside  their  body  in  the  form  of 
advice  upon  executive  nominations.  When  it  was 
pointed  out  to  their  leaders  that  Mr.  Osmena  advised 
on  nominations  not  in  his  capacity  as  Speaker  of  the 
House,  but  as  president  of  the  Nacionalista  party,  the 
reply  was  that  this  was  ' '  invisible  government. ' '  The 
administrative  officials  felt  that  the  law  had  given  to 
them,  through  the  members  of  the  cabinet,  the  right  to 
decide  upon  departmental  policies.  Mr.  Osmena,  who 
had  borne  the  burden  of  the  fight  for  Filipino  ideals  for 
many  years,  felt  himself  in  an  untenable  position.  The 
creation  of  a  Council  of  State  solved,  apparently,  all 
of  these  difficulties,  and  carried  out  more  logically  the 
principle  of  responsible  government.  The  body  is  un- 
known in  American  constitutional  law,  unless  it  can  be 
said  that  such  entities  as  the  Governor's  Council  in 


212     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Massachusetts  and  Maine  carry  out  the  same  idea. 
The  Council  of  State,  however,  is  a  familiar  institution 
in  all  Latin  American  countries,  at  least  wherever  the 
somewhat  remorseless  logic  of  the  Napoleonic  law  pre- 
vails. 

The  executive  order  creating  the  Council  of  State 
described  it  as  a  body  appointed  to  advise  the  gover- 
nor-general, under  his  presidency,  and  to  be  composed 
of  the  members  of  the  cabinet  and  the  presidents  of 
both  houses  of  the  Legislature.  It  at  once  superseded 
the  cabinet  as  a  body,  and  thenceforth  meetings  of  the 
council  were  held  weekly.  Upon  motion  of  President 
Quezon,  Speaker  Osmena  was  elected  by  the  council  as 
its  vice-president,  and  so  became  once  more  officially 
recognized  as  the  "second  man"  in  government  cir- 
cles. The  new  body  drew  the  executive  still  closer  to 
the  Legislature,  and  virtually  insured  the  support  of 
any  reasonable  executive  policy  among  the  legislators. 
It  thus  greatly  enhanced  the  power  of  the  machinery 
of  government.  On  the  other  hand,  the  council  some- 
times displayed  that  delay  and  vacillation  inherent  in 
divided  responsibility.  An  executive  board  is  never 
as  strong  in  action  as  a  single  executive  agent,  and 
although  the  council  was  by  its  terms  only  an  advisory 
body,  its  decisions  gradually  acquired  an  aspect  more 
and  more  definitive. 

Although  I  frequently  offered,  during  the  first  year 
of  its  existence,  to  sign  a  bill  establishing  by  law  the 
Council  of  State,  the  Speaker  always  hesitated  to 
press  the  matter  in  the  House,  and  the  bill  was  never 
introduced.  In  my  last  year  of  office  I  announced  to 
the  council  that  I  would  not  then  sign  such  a  bill  if 
it  were  presented  to  me,  not  wishing  to  bind  the  hands 


THE  NEW  FILIPINO  GOVERNMENT  213 

of  my  successor.  The  council  became,  finally,  the  tar- 
get for  many  attacks  in  the  opposition  press  and  in  the 
minority  in  the  Legislature.  While  the  real  object 
of  attack  was  the  political  machine  of  the  Nacionalista 
party,  the  council  offered  a  shining  mark,  because  not 
found  in  the  organic  law.  It  was  pointed  out  in  reply 
to  criticisms  that  the  council  was  only  an  advisory 
body,  and  that  the  governor-general  had  the  right  to 
seek  advice  from  anybody  he  wished,  especially  from 
the  heads  of  the  party  in  power ;  nevertheless,  replied 
the  critics,  it  gave  the  governor-general  too  much 
power  over  the  Legislature.  Arguments  in  favor  of 
the  complete  separation  of  executive  and  legislative 
appeared  frequently.  So  the  matter  was  left  at  the 
end  of  my  term.  My  successor  may,  if  lie  wishes, 
abolish  the  Council  of  State  with  a  stroke  of  the  pen; 
or,  if  he  prefers,  he  can  add  to  it  as  many  other  per- 
sons as  he  desires  to  consult. 

Nevertheless,  the  public  discussion  which  raged 
about  the  council  in  1919  and  1920  afforded  a  most 
useful  basis  for  instruction  in  constitutional  law.  It 
was  a  very  decided  advantage  to  the  executive  to  have 
the  legislative  leaders  in  an  advisory  council;  it  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  an  advantage  to  the  members  of  the 
two  houses  to  have  access,  through  their  presidents,  to 
the  innermost  thoughts  and  reasons  of  the  executive. 
The  objections  to  it  are  based  upon  opposition  to  a 
concentration  of  powers,  and  a  justifiable  and  proper 
jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  Legislature  of  the  influence 
of  the  executive.  In  the  Philippines,  in  its  final 
analysis,  the  opposition  to  the  Council  of  State  sprang 
very  largely  from  a  growing  revolt  even  within  his 
own  party  against  the  domination  of  Speaker  Osmefia. 


214     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

The  question  of  the  abolition  of  the  Council  of  State 
by  law  was  never  seriously  considered  in  the  houses ; 
how  could  they  abolish  a  board  of  advisers  created  by 
executive  order?  How  could  they  by  resolution  pre- 
vent the  governor-general  from  consulting  whom  he 
wished?  Additional  embarrassment  arose  from  the  fact 
that,  though  it  had  not  been  created  by  law,  the  Legisla- 
ture had  in  numerous  laws  confided  to  the  Council  of 
State  prerogatives  of  parceling  out  extensive  classes  of 
appropriations.  I  always  made  it  clear  that  the  council 
was  established  at  the  express  wish  of  the  Filipino 
leaders,  that  I  thought  it  had  been  of  decided  benefit 
both  to  the  Legislature  and  to  the  executive;  that  I 
did  not  consider  it  an  intrusion  upon  legislative  privi- 
leges, and  that  if  the  two  houses  did  not  wish  their 
respective  presidents  to  sit  in  the  council,  they  only 
had  to  say  so. 

It  is  my  final  impression  that  the  abolition  of  the 
Council  of  State  would  be  a  step  backward,  as  a 
lessening  of  their  acquired  exercise  of  self-govern- 
ment. The  opposition  to  the  council  finally  resolved 
itself  into  opposition  to  Speaker  Osmena.  His  at- 
titude toward  the  council  had  too  greatly  stressed  his 
own  idea  of  responsible  leadership;  this  was  made 
most  apparent  by  an  incident  which  occurred  toward 
the  end  of  my  administration,  after  a  sharp  discussion 
between  Messrs.  Quezon  and  Osmena  which  was  the 
nearest  approach  we  ever  had  to  a  quarrel  in  either  the 
cabinet  or  the  council.  The  matter  under  discussion 
was  the  granting  of  government  subsidy  through  the 
National  Development  Company,  a  branch  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, to  a  private  company  to  be  formed  for  the 
manufacture  of  cement,  a  greatly  needed  industry  in 


THE  NEW  FILIPINO  GOVERNMENT  215 

the  Philippines.  Mr.  Quezon  had  taken  one  side  of  the 
discussion,  Mr.  Osmena  the  other.  The  council  was 
evidently  with  Mr.  Quezon,  and  I  was  about  to  put 
the  final  motion  when,  to  my  surprise,  Mr.  Osmena 
broke  in  with  a  statement  that  if  the  motion  carried 
he  would  resign.  The  meeting  was  at  once  adjourned, 
and  with  a  little  patience  all  feelings  were  subsequently 
smoothed  out,  and  the  subsidy  agreed  upon.  The  point 
of  interest  is  that  Mr.  Osmena  evidently  believed  that 
a  vote  adverse  to  his  expressed  opinion  would  destroy 
his  responsible  leadership. 

If  too  much  emphasis  has  been  laid  upon  these  dis- 
cussions and  debates,  they  may  at  least  interest  the 
student  of  political  science.  They  may,  moreover, 
illustrate  to  the  unbeliever  the  progress  of  the  Fili- 
pinos in  the  art  of  government. 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  Filipino  Lawmakers 

UP  to  the  year  1914  the  Philippine  Assembly  of- 
fered the  best  field  for  studying  the  capacity  of 
the  Filipinos  in  government ;  then  they  were  given  con- 
trol of  the  upper  house  as  well,  though  under  the  strong 
influence  of  an  American  minority.  Until  then  they 
had  been  denied  all  effective  or  responsible  participa- 
tion in  administrative  affairs. 

In  1916  the  Jones  Act  gave  them  real  self-govern- 
ment, but  with  the  constant  presence  of  an  American 
governor-general  and  vice-governor,  the  latter  in  direct 
charge  of  the  two  important  branches  of  Public  In- 
struction and  Public  Health.  It  is  therefore  easy  for 
the  unfriendly  critic  still  to  claim  for  American  influ- 
ence whatever  he  approves  in  administration  and  to 
blame  as  Filipino  whatever  he  dislikes.  That,  in 
reality,  this  attitude  is  unjustifiable  and  not  sup- 
ported by  the  facts,  may  make  but  little  difference 
in  this  political  controversy.  The  Legislature  at  least 
since  1916  has  been  composed  entirely  of  Filipinos, 
and  they  may  be  credited  with  the  form  and  substance 
of  the  wise  laws  they  have  adopted,  or  reproached  with 
the  shortcomings  in  legislation.  Their  critics  have, 
during  these  five  years,  been  active  in  observation  and 
not  always  unprejudiced  in  comment. 

It  would  be  unpardonable  in  a  brief  volume,  such  as 
the  present  writing,  to  attempt  a  report  and  analysis 

216 


THE  FILIPINO  LAWMAKERS  217 

of  all  the  laws  passed  during  these  five  years ;  certainly, 
if  mistakes  have  been  made,  they  have  been  open  to  the 
attack  of  an  exceedingly  alert  and  powerful  body  of 
critics  who  have  widely  advertised  any  action  of  the 
Filipinos  which  they  thought  might  be  used  to  their 
disadvantage. 

The  general  trend  of  legislation  has  been  progressive 
and  distinctly  advantageous  to  the  development  of  the 
country.  The  first  session  under  the  Jones  Act  was 
dedicated,  with  entire  reason,  to  political  considera- 
tions,— the  reorganization  of  the  government.  After 
that,  matters  of  domestic  reform  were  taken  up,  to  be 
interrupted  by  the  irresistible  pressure  of  new  ques- 
tions due  to  the  war.  These  were  largely  in  the  field 
of  political  science  in  which  direct  participation  had 
always  been  denied  to  the  Filipinos, — the  economic, — 
and  it  is  all  the  more  creditable  that  they  grasped  and 
handled  the  problems  with  so  much  vigor  and  deter- 
mination. 

Banking  and  currency,  the  export  and  import  mar- 
kets, coinage  questions,  the  gold  or  silver  standard,  food 
control  and  the  stimulation  of  certain  crops,  shipping 
and  railroad  ownership  and  development,  the  building 
of  sugar  centrals  and  the  price  of  sugar,  the  marketing 
of  hemp  and  tobacco, — these  were  the  principal  topics 
of  consideration  and  debate  in  the  Legislature.  Every 
possible  means  within  the  limits  of  prudence  was 
adopted  to  enable  the  economic  resources  of  the  country 
to  meet  the  acute  stringency  of  conditions  during  the 
war  and  after  the  Armistice.  The  success  of  the  Fili- 
pinos in  these  matters  is  of  public  record,  and  will 
stand  investigation  and  analysis.  If  mistakes  were 
made,  so  they  were  in  all  other  countries  during  these 


218     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

years  of  war.  Is  it  necessary  to  belittle  the  ability  of 
the  Filipinos  if  they,  too,  suffered  from  world-wide 
economic  disturbances?  The  point  of  emphasis  is 
rather  that  the  islands  came  through  the  crisis  as  well 
as  they  did,  that  they  were  by  comparison  really  pros- 
perous in  the  midst  of  depression  elsewhere,  and  that 
they  suffered  less  than  those  other  countries  of  the 
Orient  which,  like  the  Philippines,  were  outside  the 
theater  of  active  warfare.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
the  student  of  civics,  it  is  a  matter  of  congratulation 
that  no  graft,  no  jobbery,  no  log-rolling,  no  cheap  poli- 
tics, no  selfish  localism,  no  cynical  opportunism,  and 
no  hypocrisy  is  to  be  charged  against  the  management 
of  the  Philippine  Legislature.  Its  budget  is  intelli- 
gently debated,  subjected  to  minute  scrutiny,  honestly 
considered  from  a  national  rather  than  local  stand- 
point, and  is  free  from  gross  extravagances  and  ab- 
surdities. 

There  is  a  very  marked  difference  in  the  organiza- 
tion and  management  of  the  two  houses.  The  House  of 
Eepresentatives  is  controlled  by  a  powerful  organiza- 
tion headed  by  Speaker  Osmena,  and  the  program  of 
legislation  is  managed  with  considerable  skill.  The 
Senate,  a  smaller  body,  of  course,  is  democratically  or- 
ganized and  much  freer  in  debate,  but  the  extraordi- 
nary leadership  of  President  Quezon  is  evident  the  mo- 
ment a  "government"  measure  is  in  danger.  In  both 
houses  the  committees  are  of  much  less  proportionate 
importance  than  those  in  the  American  Congress. 
Private  bills,  as  they  are  defined  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, are  infrequent,  and  deal  mostly  with  franchises 
for  electric-light  plants  which,  before  approval,  are 
referred  to  the  Public  Utility  Commission. 


THE  FILIPINO  LAWMAKERS  219 

All  of  the  members  of  both  houses,  except  those  ap- 
pointed for  the  non-Christian  territories,  are  highly 
educated  men,  and  for  the  most  part  are  university- 
graduates.  There  are  as  yet  very  few  members  edu- 
cated by  the  American  public-school  system  and,  con- 
sequently, the  debates  are  always  in  Spanish.  English 
will  come  into  use  as  the  younger  men  come  to  the 
front.  Representative  Eulogio  Benitez,  in  the  session 
of  1920,  made  the  first  speech  in  English  ever  delivered 
from  the  floor  of  the  House.  The  manners  of  the  mem- 
bers are  above  reproach,  and  the  presiding  officers  are 
seldom  obliged  to  call  to  order  the  participants  in  a 
debate.  The  speeches  are  eloquent,  and  often  full  of 
allusions  to  history  and  literature.  In  fact,  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  must  often  bewail  the  fact  that  the  oratorical 
talent  of  the  Filipino  is  so  much  more  pronounced 
than  his  own.  Even  among  the  school-boys,  and  in  the 
remote  provinces,  one  usually  hears  a  more  eloquent 
public  speech  than  the  average  American  can  achieve. 
It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  in  this  nation  of 
orators  the  chaff  is,  by  the  audience,  usually  separated 
from  the  wheat,  and  mere  histrionic  oratory  accom- 
plishes little  more  than  entertainment. 

The  members  are  largely  lawyers  or  doctors  of 
medicine ;  one  familiar  with  the  composition  of  parlia- 
ments in  countries  of  Latin  civilization  will  be  pre- 
pared for  this ;  the  doctor  is  always  well  educated,  and 
generally  a  keen  appraiser  of  human  nature. 

The  press  in  the  Philippines  is  active,  keen,  and  well 
written.  Professional  ethics  are  high  among  the  jour- 
nalists, and  there  are  few  instances  of  imputing  to  a 
public  man  statements  he  never  made,  or  of  refusing 
to  publish  corrections.    Certain  journals,  however,  es- 


220     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

pecially  those  dedicated  to  some  particular  political 
issue  or  campaign,  often  go  to  lengths  unfavorable  to 
the  peace  of  the  public  mind  and  prejudicial  to  public 
order.  These  are  not,  however,  of  wide  circulation  in 
the  provinces. 

The  defects  of  the  Philippine  Legislature  are  the  de- 
fects of  inexperience.  The  worst  faults  are  due  to  the 
habit  of  voting  with  the  leader, — a  criticism  also  ap- 
plicable to  most  of  the  South  American  parliaments. 
The  minority  in  the  adjustments  sessions  is  most  de- 
plorably weak  in  numbers,  and  uncertain  of  its  rights. 
The  most  active  minority  members,  General  Sandiko 
in  the  Senate  and  Claro  M.  Recto,  the  Batangas  poet, 
in  the  House,  though  obviously  sincere,  often  seem  to 
the  observer  to  be  "barking  up  the  wrong  tree." 

Bills  are  not  printed  when  introduced,  but  are  mim- 
eographed, and  then,  and  in  their  amended  form,  are 
not  given  sufficient  publicity.  If  they  were,  they  would 
be  subjected  to  the  most  caustic  dissection  in  the  op- 
position press,  the  editors  of  which  are  sleepless  in 
their  attacks  upon  the  majority;  the  journalists,  for 
the  most  part,  are  ex-office-holders,  or  those  who  hope 
to  step  from  the  editorial  chair  into  public  office.  The 
tone  of  legislative  life  would  be  improved  by  a  proper 
publicity  of  the  measures  introduced.  Even  up  to  the 
moment  of  passage,  and  afterward,  it  is  difficult  to  get 
a  copy  of  a  bill.  Political  opponents  may  ascribe  this 
to  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  organization  leaders  to 
suppress  the  facts  of  pending  legislation,  but  the  truth 
is  that  they  are  so  sensitive  over  years  of  attack  upon 
them  by  certain  American  influences,  that  they  devote 
a  most  scrupulous  attention  to  the  phraseology  as  well 
as  the  substance  of  every  bill  presented,  before  it  is  al- 


THE  FILIPINO  LAWMAKERS  221 

lowed  publication.  How  often  have  we  seen  in  our  own 
country  a  State  legislature  or  even  Congress  dis- 
credited by  a  bill  with  wildcat  ideas  or  faulty  dic- 
tion introduced  by  some  member  acting  on  his  own 
responsibility?  The  British  Parliament  gives  the  most 
exhaustive  analysis  to  every  bill  before  it  is  permitted 
introduction  as  a  government  measure.  Neverthe- 
less, the  present  Philippine  method  of  refusing  to  have 
the  bills  printed  upon  introduction  and  at  their  various 
stages  is  open  to  criticism,  and  has  sometimes  defeated 
the  very  purpose  of  the  practice.  Wise  or  careful 
members  of  the  bodies  would  probably  have  spied  out 
before  passage  and  insisted  upon  eliminating  the  ob- 
jectionable features  of  the  few  bills  which  have  subse- 
quently met  the  executive  veto. 

Their  worst  practice,  however,  and  one  easily  ca- 
pable of  reform,  is  the  withholding  of  most  of  the  meas- 
ures until  the  last  night  of  the  legislative  session. 
This  reprehensible  practice  is  common  in  the  American 
Congress,  as  well  as  the  State  legislatures;  in  the 
Philippines,  it  is  carried  to  excess,  and  is  to  be  blamed 
principally  upon  the  House  of  Representatives.  It  pre- 
vents proper  discussion  and  understanding  of  many  of 
the  measures  adopted  at  the  end  of  every  session. 
Many  members,  in  those  last  crowded  and  exciting 
hours,  hardly  know  what  they  have  passed  or  what 
they  are  voting  upon.  Making  due  allowance  for  the 
dilatory  side  of  human  nature  apparent  in  all  countries, 
and  especially  in  the  tropics,  it  must  be  said  that  in 
the  Philippine  Legislature  the  party  management  of- 
ten deliberately  withholds  measures  until  the  last  mo- 
ment with  the  hope  of  rushing  them  through  without 
debate  and  thus  holding  firm  control  over  the  legisla- 


222     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

tive  program.  To  be  sure,  the  result  is  that  the  ad- 
ministration generally  gets  its  bills  passed,  but  it  is 
probable  that  the  same  result  would  be  attained  and 
with  more  general  public  satisfaction  if  generous  de- 
bate and  orderly  consideration  were  always  permitted 
before  passage.  At  least  it  can  be  positively  stated 
that  this  practice  has  never  been  deliberately  employed 
in  the  Philippine  Legislature  to  pass  unworthy  or  im- 
proper legislation,  and  never  for  any  selfish  interest. 
There  are  prospects  now  that  it  will  eventually  be  re- 
formed, for  the  Senate  has  recently,  upon  several  oc- 
casions, gone  on  record  in  emphatic  disapproval. 

The  disposition  to  meet  American  imperialist  argu- 
ments is  apparent  in  another  feature  characteristic  of 
the  present  Philippine  Legislature.  One  of  the  charges 
against  the  Filipinos  most  commonly  made  is  that  they 
are  not  a  united  people,  but  are  a  congeries  of  differ- 
ent races,  tribes,  and  nationalities  who  could  never 
really  work  together  in  national  endeavor.  The  charge 
is  entirely  without  foundation,  and  respecting  it  the 
evidence  is  strong  that  ''the  wish  is  father  to  the 
thought."  Nevertheless,  the  Filipinos  are  extremely 
sensitive  to  this  reiterated  criticism.  They  have  been, 
above  all,  determined  to  prevent  a  decision  on  any 
measure  before  the  Legislature  upon  sectional  lines. 
Ilocanos,  Tagalogs,  Visayans  all  vote,  irrespective  of 
the  section  they  represent.  The  Nacionalista  party  is 
strong  in  every  division  and  locality  of  the  islands,  and 
votes  are  cast  without  reference  to  difference  in  lan- 
guage or  dialect.  The  principle,  however,  is  adhered  to 
to  an  extent  unusual  in  American  or  European  legisla- 
tures. The  legislators  in  Manila  try  to  arrive  at  a 
unanimous  vote  whenever  possible,  upon  every  bill. 


THE  FILIPINO  LAWMAKERS  223 

If  a  strong  minority  develops  upon  any  measure,  and 
efforts  to  convince  the  opposition  are  futile,  the  project 
is  likely  to  be  deferred  until  the  next  session.  Many 
times  in  the  American  Congress  I  have  seen  bills  car- 
ried by  a  few  votes;  once  during  my  service  there  a 
proposed  constitutional  amendment  was  defeated  by 
one  vote  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  This  is  not 
the  Filipino  custom;  the  House  must  be  nearly  unani- 
mous, or  the  matter  is  dropped.  To  such  lengths  have 
the  charges  of  disunion  and  "separation"  brought  the 
Filipino  representatives!  Their  caution  is  not  only 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  feel  themselves  to  be  acting 
in  a  "  show  window" ;  it  is  due  above  all  to  a  desire  and 
determination  to  avoid  everything  which  retards  or 
seems  to  impair  the  ever-increasing  solidarity  of  the 
Filipino  people. 

Another  Filipino  characteristic  which  induces  the 
leaders  never  to  press  a  vote  where  opposition  has  de- 
veloped is  the  lack  of  real  party  platforms  in  elections. 
The  importance  attached  by  both  parties  to  the  inde- 
pendence issue  has  obscured  in  elections  all  other  ques- 
tions submitted  to  the  voters.  Since  both  parties  sub- 
scribe to  the  demand  for  independence,  the  campaigns 
are  conducted  chiefly  upon  the  record  of  the  party  in 
power,  and  naturally  enough  sometimes  degenerate 
into  an  exchange  of  personalities  and  utterly  un- 
founded charges.  The  opposition  candidate  claims 
that  he  is  more  fit  to  care  for  the  interests  of  the  people, 
more  interested  in  purity  of  administration,  less  tyran- 
nical. There  is  thus  little  general  discussion  at  elec- 
tion times  of  issues  of  national  interest,  such  as  the 
tariff,  Chinese  immigration,  the  land  laws,  suffrage 
and  divorce,  public  ownership  of  public  utilities,  or  the 


224    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

relations  of  landlord  and  tenant.  When  such  matters 
finally  come  to  discussion  in  the  Legislature,  the  party 
in  power  has  no  expressed  mandate  from  the  people 
upon  which  to  rely.  Both  parties  have  hesitated  to 
throw  bones  of  contention  into  the  elections,  so  that, 
hotly  contested  as  they  are,  the  public  spirit  is  aroused 
by  personalities  rather  than  by  appeals  to  principles. 

At  the  joint  committee  hearing  of  Congress  upon  the 
Philippine  question  in  June,  1919,  a  member  asked 
President  Quezon,  who  was  then  testifying,  what  the 
difference  was  between  the  parties  in  the  islands.  Mr. 
Quezon,  with  characteristic  frankness,  immediately  re- 
plied: "  Those  who  are  in  office  are  trying  to  hold  it, 
while  the  'outs'  are  trying  to  get  in."  Former  Repre- 
sentative Emiliano  Tria  Tirona,  the  leader  of  the 
Democrata  party,  who  was  then  also  present  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  ''Independence  Mission,"  tried  to  expatiate 
upon  the  differences  between  the  parties;  I  could  see 
the  progressive  stages  of  boredom  reflected  upon  the 
countenance  of  the  chairman,  Senator  Warren  Gr.  Hard- 
ing. That  is  the  feeling  the  subject  inevitably  induces 
in  any  disinterested  auditor. 

The  elections  in  the  Philippines  call  forth  the  utmost 
activity  among  the  politicians;  the  vote  is  unusually 
large;  in  1919,  the  last  general  election,  92  per  cent, 
of  the  qualified  voters  cast  their  ballots.  Universal 
suffrage  has  not  yet  been  conceded;  property  or  edu- 
cational tests  limit  the  list.  Charges  of  fraud  are  fre- 
quent in  the  more  active  provinces,  and  consist  not  of 
claims  of  bribery  but  of  manipulation  of  the  ballot 
boxes  and  fraudulent  returns.  An  effort  is  now  being 
made  to  pass  a  better  electoral  law,  which  shall  provide 
really  adequate  watchers  at  the  polls.     The  election 


THE  FILIPINO  LAWMAKERS  225 

charges  are  carried  at  once  to  the  Courts  of  First  In- 
stance, but,  it  must  be  admitted,  are  seldom  substan- 
tiated. The  elections,  however,  in  Ambos  Camarines 
and  Albay  are  notoriously  corrupt,  and  at  the  first 
session  of  the  new  Senate  the  two  senators  from  that 
district  were  not  seated.  Such  election  scandals  as 
those  of  recent  years  in  Michigan,  Indiana,  and  Ohio 
have  been  carried  broadcast  through  the  American 
periodicals  and  have  had,  to  say  the  least,  an  unfortu- 
nate influence  upon  the  conduct  of  elections  in  the 
Philippines.  The  actual  purchase  of  votes  is  unusual, 
a  condition  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  situation  in  the 
rural  districts  of  the  State  of  New  York,  where  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  ago  at  least  one  third  of  the  voters 
were  carried  on  the  campaign  books  of  each  local  party 
manager  as  " doubtful,' '  i.  e.,  purchasable.  The  char- 
acter of  the  paisano  or  countryman  is,  moreover,  fer- 
tile soil  for  the  success  of  election  manceuvers;  his 
loyalty  to  his  friends,  to  his  patron  or  leader,  opens 
the  door  to  election  frauds.  These,  however,  are  not 
so  serious  as  to  affect  the  final  results;  during  my 
nearly  eight  years  of  service  in  the  islands  I  have 
known  only  one  member  of  the  Legislature  whom  I  be- 
lieve to  have  been  actually  seated  by  fraudulent  votes. 
The  election  cases  in  the  Assembly  have  been  a  source 
of  serious  complaint ;  the  custom  of  the  controlling  ma- 
chine there  has  been  to  stifle  election  contests  in  com- 
mittee, and  let  them  die  of  inaction;  while  this  was 
foolish  and  perhaps  entirely  unnecessary  from  their 
own  point  of  view,  at  least  it  may  be  said  that  it  did 
not  go  to  the  unpardonable  lengths  common  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  in  Washington  twenty  years 
ago,  where  an  election  contest  was  then  never  settled 


226     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

on  the  merits,  but  by  a  strictly  partizan  vote,  in  the 
grand  manner  of  the  historic  Tilden-Hayes  contest 
for  the  Presidency.  At  the  session  of  1920-21,  the 
Philippine  House  reformed  this  custom  and  gave  ap- 
parently just  consideration  and  decision  in  pending 
contests. 

Throughout  all  the  provinces  and  municipalities 
local  affairs  are  administered  and  local  ordinances  and 
regulations  adopted  by  Filipino  provincial  boards  and 
municipal  councils.  The  provincial  boards  are  now  all 
elective  except  in  certain  non-Christian  provinces,  and 
consist  of  the  governor  and  two  other  members.  The 
municipal  councils,  consisting  of  a  president,  vice- 
president,  and  from  five  to  ten  additional  members,  are 
also  elective.  Both  the  provinces  and  the  municipali- 
ties are  limited  in  the  scope  of  their  authority,  for  taxes 
are  laid  and  income  apportioned  in  bulk  by  the  insular 
Legislature.  The  acts  of  both  the  boards  and  councils 
are  reviewable  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and 
are  occasionally  disapproved  by  him.  Local  questions 
relating  to  roads,  bridges,  artesian  wells,  to  the  schools, 
to  police  questions,  to  the  rinderpest  and  locust  cam- 
paigns constitute  the  bulk  of  the  work  of.  these  provin- 
cial and  municipal  legislatures.  Generally  speaking, 
their  work  is  conscientiously  done,  and  they  are  dis- 
tinctly entitled  to  credit  for  the  satisfactory  average 
of  their  performances. 

Finally,  some  mention  should  be  made  of  the  two 
dominant  personalities  in  the  Philippine  Legislature, 
Messrs.  Manuel  L.  Quezon  and  Sergio  Osmena,  each  of 
whom,  as  president  of  his  respective  chamber,  exercises 
a  profound  influence  in  public  affairs.  Of  radically 
different  character,  they  are  absolutely  united  for 


THE  FILIPINO  LAWMAKERS  227 

what  they  believe  to  be  the  welfare  of  their  country; 
frequent  efforts  are  made  by  their  more  ambitious 
followers  to  bring  about  a  breach  between  them,  and 
it  is  the  constant  preoccupation  of  those  in  the  ad- 
ministration to  preserve  the  existing  harmony  be- 
tween them.  Mr.  Quezon  is  a  Tagalog,  and  Mr.  Osmena 
a  Visayan,  but  fortunately  for  the  country  their  fol- 
lowers are  not  divided  upon  provincial  lines;  the 
Tagalogs  have  thus  far  shown  a  marked  superiority 
to  the  Visayans  in  political  talent;  in  fact,  within 
my  experience,  with  the  exception  of  Speaker  Osmena, 
there  have  been  only  five  Visayans  in  the  front  rank 
politically, — Chief  Justice  Mapa,  Resident  Commis- 
sioner de  Veyra,  and  Senators  Clarin  of  Bohol,  File- 
mon  Sotto,  of  Cebu,  and  Francisco  Enaja  of  Leyte. 
The  Visayans,  however,  are  numerically  superior  to 
the  Tagalogs,  so  that  as  political  forces  they  are  fairly 
evenly  balanced.  While  Speaker  Osmena  can  gen- 
erally secure  the  support  of  the  Visayans,  President 
Quezon  has  many  influential  followers  among  them; 
the  Speaker  has  many  devoted  adherents  in  the  Taga- 
log provinces.  Mr.  Osmena 's  strength  comes  from  his 
conservative  attitude  on  public  questions,  and  his  re- 
luctance to  advocate  changes  in  the  time-honored  social 
system  in  the  provinces;  this  secures  for  him  strong 
backing  among  the  Filipino  clergy,  headed  by  Bishop 
Ivan  B.  Gorordo  of  Cebu.  The  present  archbishops  and 
bishops  of  European  descent  are  more  in  sympathy 
with  Mr.  Quezon,  as  are  the  missionaries  of  the  Metho- 
dist and  Presbyterian  denominations.  Having  been 
a  major  upon  Aguinaldo's  staff  in  1899,  Quezon  has  a 
strong  backing  among  the  ''Veterans  of  the  Revolu- 


228     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

tion"  among  whom  a  strong  opposition  to  Osmefia  has 
developed. 

The  Senate  is  the  progressive  body  in  legislation  and 
the  House  the  conservative,  so  naturally  the  young 
men,  especially  in  the  university,  are  enthusiastic  fol- 
lowers of  President  Quezon,  who  addresses  them  from 
time  to  time  upon  the  state  of  the  country.  Mr. 
Quezon  has  been  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Grand  Lodge 
of  Masons  of  the  Philippines,  and  is  the  president  of 
the  Columbian  Association  in  Manila,  composed  of 
young  men  who  have  been  educated  in  the  United 
States.  The  capitalists  in  the  provinces  are  more 
inclined  to  Mr.  Osmeiia,  and  those  in  Manila,  where  his 
personal  influence  is  the  determining  factor,  to  Mr. 
Quezon,  despite  the  fact  that  he  has  made  himself  the 
champion  of  the  newly  born  cause  of  the  laboring 
men  in  the  Philippines.  The  Chinese  merchants,  a 
very  powerful  body  in  financial  circles,  are  on  Osmena's 
side;  Mr.  Quezon  is  frankly  pro-American  and  is  the 
ablest  and  most  effective  friend  the  Americans  have 
in  Philippine  political  circles;  Mr.  Osmeiia  is  not  un- 
friendly toward  any  nationality,  but  is  cautious  and 
reserved  in  his  attitude  toward  all  the  non-Philippine 
races. 

Mr.  Osmeiia  is  the  calm,  well-balanced  director  of 
policies  and  organizations,  though  upon  occasion  he 
can  emerge  from  the  security  of  his  office  and  deliver 
eloquent  and  telling  addresses ;  Mr.  Quezon  is  the  bold 
and  active  fighter  before  the  public,  whether  in  Amer- 
ica or  the  Philippines,  for  the  rights  of  his  people.  He 
is  brave  and  impulsive,  as  quick  as  lightning,  extremely 
formidable  in  debate,  and  of  most  attractive  person- 
ality, making  friends  of  all  whom  he  meets.    It  is  the 


THE  FILIPINO  LAWMAKERS  229 

fashion  in  political  circles  to  speculate  upon  which  of 
the  two  would  win  in  a  contest  before  the  country;  the 
contest  is  not  at  hand,  and  the  present  emergency  in 
the  relations  of  the  Philippines  with  the  United  States 
will  necessitate  their  continuing  to  act  shoulder  to 
shoulder  in  the  same  cause.  If  the  split  between  them 
should  come,  which  would  win?  Quien  sabef  Their 
forces  and  resources  seem  so  evenly  balanced  that 
many  believe  they  would  only  succeed  in  neutralizing 
one  another's  candidacies,  and  that  the  result  would  be 
to  bring  to  the  front  some  third  man,  such  as  Senator 
Rafael  Palma,  agreeable  to  them  both  and  to  their 
respective  followers. 

During  the  earlier  years  of  my  service  the  Assembly 
gave  unqualified  support  to  my  recommendations  and 
requests  as  governor-general;  after  the  formation  of 
the  Senate  and  the  development  of  plans  for  the  reform 
of  social  institutions  had  led  to  sharp  divisions  of  opin- 
ion upon  such  questions  as  woman 's  suffrage,  divorce, 
the  relations  of  landlord  and  tenant,  and  the  rights  of 
laboring  men,  my  support  came  chiefly  from  the  Senate. 

As  the  active  leader  in  the  front  of  the  firing  line 
in  the  political  fight  for  independence,  Mr.  Quezon  has 
for  years  drawn  the  attacks  of  the  army  officers  and 
imperialists  in  Washington  and  Manila;  at  the  same 
time  he  really  deserves  their  warmest  support,  having 
manifested  upon  many  occasions  his  sincere  regard  for 
the  Americans  and  deep  respect  and  affection  for  the 
United  States.  On  one  point,  he  would  never  yield  to 
America, — the  question  of  independence.  Inasmuch, 
however,  as  Congress  has  formally  promised  the  free- 
dom of  his  country,  Mr.  Quezon  justly  maintains  that 
his  attitude  in  that  respect  is  entirely  pro-American. 


230    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

As  a  friend  and  ally,  his  services  are  absolutely 
invaluable;  to  him  no  sacrifice  is  too  great,  and  no 
trouble  too  taxing  when  he  has  undertaken  to  do 
anything  for  a  friend ;  he  has,  moreover,  in  abundant 
measure  that  prime  requisite  of  the  successful  states- 
man: he  always  keeps  his  word.  As  this  is  at  times 
too  impulsively  given,  he  is  led  into  occasional  diffi- 
culties. Mr.  Osmena  is  exceedingly  chary  about  mak- 
ing any  promises  whatever,  and  that  is  baffling  to 
those  who  go  to  him  to  ask  his  political  advice  and 
opinion. 

Working  in  combination,  these  two  men  make  a 
political  team  which  is  almost  irresistible ;  should  they 
decide  to  part  company,  the  harmony  and  effectiveness 
of  the  political  organization  would  be  sadly  disturbed, 
and  it  would  lead  to  an  inevitable  regrouping  of  the 
forces  in  both  houses  of  the  Legislature,  to  a  reorgan- 
ization of  the  Nacionalista  party,  and  possibly  to  the 
domination  of  a  new  political  party  in  the  country. 
Should  this  upheaval  occur  in  the  near  future,  it  is 
important  to  note  that  the  tendency  to  division  is 
upon  the  basis  of  public  policy,  not  of  personality,  the 
present  forces  inclining  to  group  themselves  into 
"stand-pat"  and  "progressive"  parties  upon  ques- 
tions of  domestic  concern.  If  the  independence  ques- 
tion, or  that  of  the  relation  of  the  Philippines  to  the 
United  States,  again  is  to  obscure  the  whole  political 
horizon,  all  differences  between  Filipino  political 
groups  will  be  immediately  buried  and  the  whole  force 
of  their  organization  will  present  a  united  front  to  the 
world. 


CHAPTER   XVI 
In  the  Provinces 

IF  Paris  is  France,  it  is  not  true  that  Manila  is  the 
Philippines.  The  country  is  primarily  and  marked- 
ly one  of  small  agriculturalists,  and  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  the  inhabitants  live  on  their  own  farms,  some- 
what less  than  forty  acres  being  the  share  of  the  aver- 
age family. 

If  the  visitor  could  be  transported  on  the  magic 
carpet  of  the  Arabian  Nights  to  any  remote  country 
village  in  the  Philippines  he  could  not  at  first  glance 
tell  in  what  part  of  the  islands  he  had  been  deposited. 
The  houses  are  very  much  alike  in  all  provinces  and 
the  daily  life  of  the  Filipino,  his  dress,  and  his  manner 
of  living  are  strikingly  similar  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  There  are  no  large  cities  except  Manila,  with 
its  population  of  300,000,  and  Iloilo  and  Cebu,  with 
about  60,000  each.  The  bulk  of  the  11,000,000  inhabi- 
tants of  the  islands  live  in  small  towns  and  villages. 

The  house  of  the  Filipino  countryman  is  small  and 
neat,  raised  upon  posts  about  six  feet  above  the  ground. 
It  is  built,  usually,  of  bamboo,  and  the  roof,  thatched 
with  nipa  palm,  gives  it  a  somewhat  shaggy  appear- 
ance. There  is  very  little  furniture  within,  and  the 
poorer  families  usually  sleep  upon  mats  upon  the 
springy  bamboo  floor.  The  houses  are  admirably 
suited  to  the  climate,  and  the  moment  one  enters  them, 
the  blinding  glare  and  intense  heat  of  the  tropics  are 

231 


232     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

forgotten.  A  stranger  is  welcomed  with  hospitality 
in  the  most  remote  hamlets,  and  the  best  of  everything 
the  natives  have  to  eat  and  drink  is  his,  together  with 
the  best  chair,  and  perhaps  the  only  bed, — which  is 
made,  as  in  India,  of  leather  thongs  stretched  over  a 
framework.  To  the  visitor,  the  family  at  first  seems 
very  solemn,  but  little  by  little  the  children  become 
more  inquisitive  and  bolder,  and  when  the  ice  is  broken, 
all  are  suddenly  at  their  ease  and  found  to  be  full  of 
humor  and  good  nature.  Comparatively  few  of  the 
towns  and  none  of  the  smaller  villages  have  hotels,  and 
the  traveler  puts  up  at  the  town  presidencia  or  with 
the  local  school-teacher  or  constabulary  officer;  other- 
wise, if  a  Filipino,  he  stays  with  his  friends  or  his 
parientes. 

A  few  pictures — perhaps  one  of  some  saint  and  one 
of  their  hero  Eizal — adorn  the  walls,  while  the  Ameri- 
can sewing-machine  and  gramophone  are  ubiquitous. 

The  family  seldom  sits  at  the  table  with  the  guest, 
all  members  serving  him  first  and  sitting  down  to  the 
remains  of  the  feast.  Eice  is  the  staple  food,  with 
usually  a  few  eggs  or  beans,  or  chopped  dried  fish. 

Their  wants  are  very  simple,  and  they  possess  few 
garments,  which  they  keep  scrupulously  clean ;  as  the 
Filipino  village  is  usually  situated  close  to  some  stream, 
the  most  familiar  domestic  scene  shows  the  washer- 
woman beating  clothes  on  the  rocks,  or  the  people  tak- 
ing their  daily  bath,  the  boys  in  one  group,  and  the 
women  and  girls  in  another  in  perfect  modesty,  never 
exposing  themselves  to  the  public  gaze. 

The  children  are  bright  and  attractive,  especially 
the  little  boys.  The  men  are  very  fond  of  the  children, 
and  the  grandfather  spends  hours  every  day  looking 


IN  THE  PROVINCES  233 

after  the  babies,  of  which  there  is  a  plentiful  crop. 
The  baby  is  carried  astride  of  the  hip,  as  we  see 
children  carried  in  India.  In  his  imaginative  painting 
of  a  Neolithic  family  group  in  prehistoric  Europe,  the 
French  artist  Fernand  Cormon  has  represented  the 
baby  in  this  position. 

Infant  mortality  has  reached  extraordinary  heights 
in  the  Philippines,  two  thirds  of  all  the  children  dying 
in  infancy  in  some  localities,  a  figure  now  happily  de- 
creased one-half  by  the  spread  during  the  last  twenty 
years  of  modern  sanitation  through  the  efforts  of  the 
Bureau  of  Health  and  of  the  women's  clubs  through- 
out the  provinces.  The  figure  of  infant  mortality  in 
the  United  States  is  only  ten  per  cent.,  and  with  the 
installation  of  artesian  wells  in  almost  all- municipali- 
ties in  the  Philippines,  the  virtual  elimination  of  small- 
pox, the  stopping  of  great  epidemics  of  cholera  and  the 
plague,  the  use  of  the  rice  hulls  for  the  making  of 
tique-tique,  a  specific  against  beriberi,  and  the  diffusion 
of  modern  ideas  of  child-feeding  and  child  welfare, 
a  great  increase  in  the  population  of  the  Philippines  is 
on  the  way.  If  intestinal  parasites,  which  are  almost 
universal,  could  be  reduced,  or  done  away  with,  a 
marked  impulse  in  national  energy  and  vitality  would 
at  once  appear. 

The  people  are  unaffectedly  simple  in  manner,  with 
a  great  natural  dignity.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  hos- 
pitality and  attentions  of  the  country  folk  to  a  visitor 
to  whom  they  wish  to  show  honor. 

The  houses  of  the  richer  Filipinos,  in  the  provinces 
as  well  as  in  Manila,  are  handsomely  built  of  hard- 
wood, elegantly  furnished,  and  equipped  with  modern 
plumbing.  Their  recreations  are  automobiling,  dancing, 


234    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

and  musical  soirees.  The  Philippines,  however,  are  not 
yet  a  country  of  rich  and  poor;  there  are  few  million- 
aires, and  almost  no  abject  poverty  in  the  islands. 

Official  visits  in  the  provinces  are  accompanied  with 
much  speech-making,  processions,  the  erection  of  grace- 
ful and  artistic  bamboo  arches  over  the  roads,  and 
the  loud  welcome  of  the  brass-band  which  is  an  inevi- 
table feature  of  every  village.  It  is  perhaps,  however, 
to  my  many  shooting-trips  in  a  dozen  different  parts 
of  the  islands  that  I  owe  my  pleasantest  recollections 
of  country  life;  free  from  the  formal  attentions  and 
intervention  of  the  officials,  and  spending  many  days 
in  the  fields  and  forests  with  the  simple  country  peo- 
ple, natural-born  sportsmen  that  they  are,  I  have  had 
the  good  fortune  to  make  lasting  friendships  with  Fili- 
pinos in  different  provinces.  It  is  too  much  to  say, 
perhaps,  that  country  life  is  everywhere  the  best  en- 
vironment for  the  making  of  human  character,  but 
certainly  no  type  in  the  Philippines  is  more  admirable, 
more  truly  friendly  and  dependable  than  the  great 
bulk  of  the  country  folk.  Some  of  the  happiest  days  of 
my  life  have  been  spent  in  camp  or  in  simple  homes 
in  the  provinces,  especially  under  guidance  of  my 
friend  Don  Serafin  Linsangan  of  Pantabangan  and  his 
compadres,  in  the  province  of  Nueva  Ecija. 

These  people  consider  no  effort  too  great  to  be 
made  for  the  comfort  of  their  guests,  no  toil  too  tire- 
some, and  no  hardship  too  severe.  They  are  cool  in 
danger,  devoted  to  their  leader,  and  the  very  stuff  of 
which  admirable  soldiers  may  be  made.  In  return  for 
their  hospitality,  it  is  an  insult  to  offer  pecuniary  re- 
ward. It  is  due  to  knowledge  gained  on  these  many 
hunting-trips  that  I  venture  to  write  with  assurance 


IN  THE  PROVINCES  235 

of  the  Filipino  people, — not  merely  of  the  rich  or 
political  classes.  The  long  conversations  I  have  had, 
hour  after  hour,  in  the  mountain  camps,  or  in  the  shade 
of  the  village  bamboo  groves,  have  given  me  a  real 
respect  for  the  natural  intelligence,  political  insight, 
good  heart,  and  faithful  friendship  of  the  Filipinos. 
The  reader  may  guess  that  I  should  like  to  write  of  the 
sport  of  wild-carabao  hunting  which  I  have  enjoyed 
in  the  provinces  of  Nueva  Ecija,  Nueva  Viscaya, 
Ifugao,  Tayabas,  and  Jolo;  of  the  days  given  to  the 
chase  of  the  tamarao  in  Mindoro,  of  the  ducks  of  Ba- 
taan  and  the  Cotabato  Valley,  or  of  the  excellent  snipe- 
shooting  in  the  ten  provinces  of  central  Luzon,  but, 
as  Kipling  says,  that  is  another  story.  Aside  from  the 
sport  enjoyed,  all  this  was  an  unrivaled  method  of 
getting  to  know  the  people,  and  a  tonic  of  unequaled 
inspiration,  which  sent  the  busy  official  back  to  his  office 
in  better  health,  and  on  better  terms  with  the  world 
at  large. 

Of  the  domestic  animals  of  the  Filipino,  first  and 
foremost  is  the  carabao,  or  Indian  water-buffalo,  upon 
which,  in  large  measure,  the  wealth  of  the  country  de- 
pends. He  is  slow  and  ponderous,  with  the  most 
wicked-looking  horns  possessed  by  any  of  the  large 
animals  of  the  world ;  he  is  suspicious  of  strangers  and 
often  hostile  to  them,  but  the  smallest  Filipino  child 
can  soon  reduce  him  to  obedience.  He  is  immensely 
powerful,  and  his  broad  hoofs  enable  him  to  drag  the 
plow  through  the  deep  mud  of  the  rice-paddy  as  no 
other  animal  could  do.  The  motor  tractor  has  largely 
superseded  animal  power  in  cultivating  the  fields  for 
sugar-cane  or  corn,  but  can  never  take  the  place  of  the 


236    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

carabao  in  the  rice-fields,  whence  the  main  food  supply 
of  the  people  comes. 

The  horses  are  small  and  reedy-looking;  originally 
a  mixture  of  the  Spanish  barb  and  the  pony  from  the 
plains  of  Manchuria,  they  have  degenerated  in  size 
through  lack  of  care  in  breeding.  They  are  extraor- 
dinarily sturdy,  and  can  go  all  day  in  the  great 
heat  with  a  heavy  burden;  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
saddle  horses  are  stallions  makes  an  expedition  with 
a  large  party  on  horseback  a  lively  affair;  the  little 
creatures  often  fight  together  like  demons. 

Cattle  are  raised  either  as  beasts  of  burden  or  for 
food ;  milk  is  supplied  only  by  the  carabao.  Chickens 
are  small,  of  the  original  type  known  as  bantams 
from  the  province  of  that  name  in  near-by  Java.  The 
wild  chickens  in  the  forests  are  of  exactly  the  same 
type  as  their  domestic  kindred.  Eggs  are  small, — 
hardly  more  than  half  as  large  as  those  from  an  Ameri- 
can hen.  Roosters  are  a  prominent  feature  of  every 
village  community;  they  are  trained  for  the  Sunday- 
morning  cockpit,  and  their  owners  seem  to  spend  hours 
stroking  them  and  preparing  for  the  next  fight.  Cock- 
fighting  may  impress  the  American  visitor  unfavor- 
ably, but  there  is  even  worse  to  be  told :  unless  one  is 
utterly  insensible  to  sounds,  and  without  any  nerves 
at  all,  he  is  doomed  to  nights  of  misery  until  he  becomes 
accustomed  to  village  life.  The  roosters  crow  all  night, 
a  challenge  from  one  being  taken  up  and  answered 
from  yard  to  yard  until  the  sleepless  traveler  fairly 
writhes  in  torture.  When  we  were  children  and  were 
told  of  Peter's  hesitating  denial  of  Christ,  while  the 
cock  crew  thrice  at  night,  the  crowing  seemed  to  us 
some  supernatural  manifestation  of  divine  warning. 


IN  THE  PROVINCES  237 

When  you  have  visited  the  Orient,  yon  find  that  this 
crowing  at  night  is — to  the  attentive  observer — the 
main  function  of  the  rooster.  And  then  the  dogs — 
but  enough  said!  The  Filipinos  have  an  aversion  to 
killing  the  surplus  dogs  and  cats,  and  every  village  is 
infested  with  them.  In  the  absence  of  locks  or  bolts 
upon  the  door  the  watch-dog  is  no  doubt  a  necessity, 
but  one  may  hazard  the  opinion  that,  as  to  numbers  at 
least,  he  is  overdone.  In  the  province  of  Albay  alone, 
during  an  epidemic  of  cholera,  Dr.  John  D.  Long,  the 
head  of  the  Bureau  of  Health,  directed  the  killing  of 
stray  dogs,  and  reported  that  thirty  thousand  were 
destroyed  in  a  few  weeks  in  that  one  locality. 

The  allegation  that  the  Filipinos  are  lazy  is  usually 
made  by  the  foreign  visitor  who  is  abroad  during  the 
hot  hours  of  the  day  when  native  man  and  beast  are 
prudently  resting.  The  carabao  requires  a  half-hour 
at  least  for  total  immersion  in  the  water  after  every 
four  hours  in  the  sun.  The  Filipinos  work  from 
earliest  dawn,  and  again  in  the  afternoon,  and  some- 
times all  night  by  the  light  of  the  moon.  Nobody  who 
has  tried  to  navigate  the  mud  of  the  rice-paddies  could 
call  lazy  a  race  of  people  who  wring  a  living  from  such 
soil ;  it  might  also  be  a  lesson  in  industry  to  watch  the 
laborer  stripping  hemp. 

In  the  rice-fields,  the  farmers  work  in  family  groups, 
or  in  community  bands,  and  the  toil  is  eased  by  a  guitar 
player  thrumming  on  the  nearest  pilapU,  or  paddy 
bank.    The  music,  however,  is  too  gloomy  for  our  taste. 

The  greatest  dangers  to  Philippine  agriculture  are 
the  locusts  and  the  rinderpest.  The  latter  is  always 
endemic  in  the  country,  as  it  is  in  India,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment has  devoted  large  sums  of  money  to  its  elimi- 


238     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

nation,  through  inoculation,  quarantine,  and  the  impor- 
tation of  immune  types  of  cattle.  Nevertheless,  it 
returns  periodically  in  virulent  form.  For  the  last 
few  years  there  has  been  comparatively  little  rinder- 
pest, but  the  severe  epidemic  at  the  time  of  the  revolu- 
tion dealt  the  agriculture  of  the  country  a  blow  from 
which  it  took  years  to  recover.  While  quarantine  reg- 
ulations are  naturally  unpopular,  they  have  never  met 
with  organized  resistance  as  in  the  State  of  Illinois 
five  years  ago  during  the  outbreak  there  of  the  foot- 
and-mouth  disease,  when  the  embattled  farmers  re- 
sisted the  quarantine  officers  with  shotguns!  In  the 
Philippines  the  difficulty  of  quarantine  is  almost  in- 
surmountable, since  there  are  few  fences  in  the  country, 
and  the  cattle  graze  in  large  herds;  infection  is  also 
carried  by  dogs,  pigs,  ducks,  and  even  by  the  deer.  As 
for  the  locusts,  it  is  hard  for  one  to  picture  the  myriads 
that  come,  literally  darkening  the  sky.  In  a  few  hours 
a  whole  crop  is  eaten,  and  the  farmer  sees  the  year's 
work  go  for  naught.  He  shrugs  his  shoulders  and  says 
it  is  the  volwntad  de  Dios  (the  will  of  God).  The  lo- 
custs breed  in  the  cogon  (tall  grass)  of  the  uninhabited 
regions,  and  when  full  grown  fly  for  miles,  even  from 
one  island  to  another.  They  can  be  successfully  com- 
bated only  when  in  the  "hopper"  stage,  before  they 
can  fly ;  then  the  whole  village  turns  out,  and  the  armies 
of  hoppers  are  driven  into  ditches  dug  for  the  purpose, 
and  are  buried.  Fortunately,  Nature  regulates  the 
multiplication  and  increase  of  locusts  in  some  mys- 
terious way ;  while  they  may  be  a  pest  for  two  or  three 
years  in  succession,  there  comes,  usually,  a  long  period 
of  respite.  One  adviser  in  Washington  solved  the 
locust  problem  by  prescribing  as  a  remedy  that  all  the 


IN  THE  PROVINCES  239 

waste  land  of  the  archipelago  be  put  under  cultivation ! 

The  Philippines  have  greatly  increased  their  agri- 
cultural production  during  the  last  decade;  the  six 
leading  crops — rice,  corn,  hemp,  sugar,  cocoanuts,  and 
tobacco — were  planted  to  an  acreage  in  1920  forty-five 
per  cent,  greater  than  in  1910.  This  is  due  partly  to 
the  high  prices  obtaining  in  recent  years,  in  the  world's 
markets,  for  Philippine  staples,  partly  to  peace  and 
security  in  the  provinces.  A  vigorous  effort  has  also 
been  organized  by  Secretary  Apacible  and  carried  out 
by  General  Adriano  Hernandez,  the  Director  of  the 
Bureau  of  Agriculture,  to  increase  the  food  crops,  so 
as  to  render  the  country  self-sustaining,  as  it  was  in 
the  days  of  Spain.  That  this  has  very  nearly  been 
accomplished  is  evident  from  the  figures  for  rice- 
production  for  1920,  when  1,019,399,503  kilos  were 
produced  in  the  islands,  or  double  the  amount  of 
1910. 

The  total  amount  of  rice  grown  in  1920  and  sold  in 
the  municipal  markets  brought  the  sum  of  Pesos 
254,855,385.  The  imports  of  rice  for  1920  were  slightly 
more  than  11,000,000  kilos  in  contrast  with  the 
average  of  about  200,000,000  kilos  imported  for  the 
past  decade.  During  the  years  1919  and  1920,  when 
the  export  of  rice  from  Indo-China  (the  chief  source  of 
Philippine  imports)  was  suspended  by  the  French  Gov- 
ernment, a  rice  dictatorship  of  the  distribution  was 
established  by  the  Philippine  Legislature.  This  was 
accomplished  through  Secretary  Dionisio  Jakosalem 
of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Communications, 
with  entire  success  and  singularly  little  friction  and 
disturbance.  The  value  of  this  achievement  will  be  bet- 
ter appreciated  when  it  is  recalled  that  in  1918  the 


240    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

cabinet  in  Japan  fell  from  power  upon  the  rice  ques- 
tion. 

The  remarkably  high  prices  for  sugar  during  recent 
years  have  led  to  the  erection  in  the  Philippines  of 
about  twenty  new  modern  sugar  centrals,  and  more  and 
more  acreage  is  yearly  planted  to  sugar-cane;  it  now 
bids  fair  to  supplant  abaca  (or  hemp)  as  the  favorite 
crop  for  export ;  the  hemp-planters  have  been  gravely 
dissatisfied  with  the  manipulation  in  the  United  States 
of  the  market  for  their  product  by  the  International 
Harvester  Company.  Projects  for  the  local  manufac- 
ture of  cordage  in  the  Philippines,  to  steady  the  price 
of  their  staple,  have  met  with  opposition  from  the 
"Cordage  Trust"  in  the  United  States. 

One  of  the  most  striking  developments  of  recent 
years  has  been  in  the  production  of  cocoanuts  from 
which  the  cocoanut  oil  of  commerce  is  expressed.  There 
were  nearly  eighty  million  cocoanut  trees  planted  in 
the  Philippines  by  the  end  of  1920,  giving  the  country 
an  important  position  in  the  export  market;  while 
copra  is  still  exported  to  England,  Spain,  France,  and 
even  to  South  America,  the  greater  part  of  the  crop  is 
pressed  into  oil  at  the  mills  in  and  about  Manila  and 
Cebu,  which  have,  however,  suffered  of  late  from  the 
efforts  of  overcapitalization  and  incautious  overbuild- 
ing. To  the  people  of  the  cocoanut  provinces,  the  rise 
in  the  price  of  copra  has  brought  great  prosperity, 
and  many  a  small  farmer  of  modest  mien  has  several 
thousand  pesos  in  the  bank  or  family  "stocking" 
against  a  rainy  day, — or  rather,  against  the  day  of 
typhoons. 

The  nerve  center  of  the  Filipino  psychology  is  the 
land ;  he  loves  his  native  soil  with  passionate  devotion, 


IN  THE  PROVINCES  241 

and  seldom  is  willing  to  emigrate  to  other  contries,  or 
even  to  other  and  more  fertile  parts  of  the  Philippines. 
Without  a  thorough  knowledge  of  Filipino  traditions 
and  customs,  the  foreigner  is  doomed  to  failure  as  a 
landlord  in  the  islands ;  there  is  an  unwritten  code  of 
reciprocal  rights  and  duties  among  the  people  who  win 
their  living  from  the  soil  that  cannot  be  easily  changed 
and  may  never  be  disregarded.  This  should  be  clearly 
borne  in  mind  in  any  plan  for  the  acquisition  of  large 
territories  in  the  Philippines  for  purposes  of  exploita- 
tion and  development.  The  apparently  passive  and 
docile  countryman  can  be  suddenly  aroused  to  passion 
and  to  deeds  of  violence  by  any  infringement  of  his 
traditional  rights  in  and  to  his  land. 

Fortunately,  the  Government  has,  under  American 
occupation,  understood  and  guarded,  as  far  as  possible, 
against  agrarian  troubles.  The  problem  of  the  friar 
lands,  as  has  already  been  mentioned,  was  success- 
fully if  not  completely  solved  in  the  earlier  days  of 
American  domination;  but  the  lesson  of  the  insurrec- 
tion against  Spain  will  never  be  forgotten.  The  law 
forbids  any  individual  from  acquiring  from  the  vast 
public  lands  by  homestead  more  than  twenty-four  hec- 
tares, the  individual  from  purchasing  more  than  one 
hundred  hectares  of  public  lands,  or  the  corporation 
from  so  obtaining  more  than  one  thousand  and  twenty- 
four  hectares.  The  dangers  of  the  Diaz  regime  in 
Mexico,  with  its  legacy  of  revolutions  and  disorders  for 
succeeding  generations  in  that  distressed  country,  are 
to  be  avoided  in  the  Philippines  if  possible.  Any 
change  in  the  public-land  laws  of  the  Philippines  re- 
quires the  signature  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States ;  there  is,  however,  no  disposition  upon  the  part 


242     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

of  the  Filipinos  themselves  to  open  up  the  country  to 
large  landed  proprietors;  in  fact,  'the  tendency  is 
quite  the  other  way.  The  recent  Public  Land  Act, 
finally  approved  by  President  Wilson  in  1919,  after 
a  year  and  a  half  of  delay,  closes  the  public  lands  of 
the  Philippines  to  all  but  Americans  or  Filipinos,  a 
restrictive  measure  which  called  forth  inquiries  and 
informal  protests  from  the  governments  of  Japan, 
France,  Spain,  and  Great  Britain.  The  act  was  finally 
put  into  shape  to  meet  all  technical  objctions,  but  it  is 
believed  that  the  hesitation  of  the  Washington  ad- 
ministration to  approve  it  was  due  to  an  especial  effort 
to  avoid  all  questions  of  controversy  with  the  "allied 
and  associated  Governments. '  '  The  Filipinos  felt 
that  if  they  were  not  able  to  secure  approval  of  this 
law  under  the  powerful  wing  of  the  United  States, 
they  would  never  be  able  to  secure  its  passage  in  later 
years.  The  Government  of  the  Straits  Settlements  had 
in  1918  passed  a  similar  law,  aimed,  it  was  understood, 
against  the  invasion  of  American  capital.  The  Japan- 
ese were  unable  to  make  an  effective  protest  against  it 
because  the  Philippine  law  had  been  skilfully  drawn 
after  a  study  at  Tokio  of  the  Japanese  land  law,  and 
was  based  as  exactly  as  possible  upon  it.  Subsequent 
negotiations,  approved  by  the  Philippine  Legislature, 
to  protect  Japanese  investments  in  the  hemp  planta- 
tions of  Davao  will  be  discussed  in  a  later  chapter. 

Minor  agrarian  disputes  are  occurring  with  increas- 
ing frequency  upon  the  larger  estates  in  the  provinces 
near  Manila  and  in  Negros.  The  rapidly  disappearing 
survivals  of  the  feudal  system  are  based  rather  upon 
tradition  than  upon  law ;  the  oppressive  custom  on  the 
part  of  a  few  Filipino  landlords,  as  for  example  in  the 


IN  THE  PROVINCES  243 

province  of  Bulacan,  of  exacting  from  tenants  pay- 
ment in  kind  of  a  portion  of  the  crop  at  fixed  prices 
below  the  market,  has  aroused  much  resentment  and 
some  threat  of  disturbance  in  a  few  localities;  it  is 
hoped  that  prosecutions  under  the  amended  usury  law 
may  diminish  this  custom;  the  small  farmeris  grad- 
ually learning  his  rights,  and  is  beginning  to  assert 
them  with  vigor  and  determination.  The  power  of  the 
cacique  or  landed  "boss"  to  retain  his  tenants  at- 
tached to  the  soil  in  a  condition  somewhat  resembling 
peonage  is  lessening  year  by  year,  as  the  small  man 
grows  more  self-confident  and  independent. 

One  of  the  cherished  features  of  the  American  bill 
of  rights  is  denied  to  the  Filipino;  he  cannot  bear 
arms  except  upon  license  granted  by  the  -governor- 
general.  This  is  usually  accorded  to  all  responsible 
persons  who  desire  shot-guns,  but  almost  never  in  the 
case  of  rifles  or  revolvers.  When  the  Filipino  is 
taunted  with  his  inability  to  form  an  army  to  defend 
his  own  country,  he  points  to  the  fact  that  he  is  not 
permitted  by  law  to  carry  arms ;  and  he  may  add  that 
his  attempt  to  organize  a  National  Guard  was  dis- 
couraged in  Washington. 

The  average  Filipino  pays  very  few  taxes  in  the 
provinces, — a  small  land  tax  of  1%  per  cent,  upon  the 
value  of  his  land,  a  cedula  or  poll-tax  of  two  pesos  a 
year,  and  a  sales  tax  of  2  per  cent,  on  his  gross  sales  of 
produce.  Repeated  recommendations  of  the  executive 
to  the  Legislature  to  increase  local  autonomy,  espe- 
cially in  the  direction  of  permitting  self-taxation  of 
various  communities  for  school  and  road  funds,  have 
as  yet  met  with  no  success.  The  demand  for  roads 
and  schools  in  the  country  districts  is  constant,  and 


244     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

would  overwhelm  the  insular  treasury  if  granted 
to  the  amounts  requested.  Village  pride  in  a  new 
school-house  calls  forth  great  rivalry  between  neigh- 
boring communities.  Public-spirited  citizens  are  con- 
stantly donating  funds  for  school  buildings  when  the 
Government  has  been  unable  to  respond.  The  country 
people  themselves  will  make  any  personal  sacrifice  to 
send  their  children  to  school,  and  the  neatly  dressed 
youngsters  with  their  "shining  morning  faces"  are  a 
source  of  pride  to  the  whole  community.  Seventy  per 
cent,  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Philippines  over  ten 
years  of  age  are  literate,  as  shown  by  the  census  of 
1918,  a  percentage  almost  as  high  as  that  of  some  of  the 
Southern  States  of  the  Union,  higher  than  that  of 
Greece,  Italy,  Portugal,  Rumania,  Servia,  or  any  of 
the  new  countries  organized  since  the  war. 

Roads  are  as  vigorously  demanded  as  schools,— new 
roads  and  then  more  of  them.  They  are  excellently 
constructed  and  kept  in  general  good  repair;  in  fact, 
they  compare  favorably  to  any  state  road  system  in 
the  United  States.  The  modern  roads  and  schools  are 
due  not  only  to  a  wise  policy  of  government,  but  also 
to  the  insistent  demand  of  the  people  themselves.  The 
proper  relation  of  these  much-needed  public  improve- 
ments to  the  revenue  would  be  better  understood  in 
the  provinces  if  more  self-government  were  accorded 
by  the  Legislature  to  the  provincial  boards  and  to 
the  municipalities.  The  allotment  of  school  funds  to 
the  different  localities  has  been  managed  by  the  cen- 
tral Government  with  conspicuous  impartiality  and 
fairness ;  more  complaints  are  heard  about  the  division 
of  road  and  bridge  funds,  which  are  by  law  apportioned 
in  bulk  among  the  provinces  in  proportion  to  popula- 


IN  THE  PEOVINCES  245 

tion.  Thus  the  very  provinces  which  could  in  all  prob- 
ability themselves  supply  the  funds  for  emergencies 
and  deficiencies,  are  those  which  receive  the  largest 
share  in  the  distribution.  There  is,  in  consequence,  a 
vast  difference  in  the  development  of  the  road  systems 
of  large  provinces  like  Cebu  or  Pangasinan,  and  small 
ones  like  Isabela,  Antique,  or  Sorsogon.  This  is  a 
cause  of  some  public  discontent. 

To  the  traveler  the  village  school-house  is  always 
the  point  of  greatest  interest.  The  boys  and  girls  go 
to  the  same  school,  which  is  a  source  of  complaint  and 
criticism  on  the  part  of  the  older  priests  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  The  children  are  keen  and  well-behaved  in 
the  class  rooms,  but  are  seen  to  greatest  advantage 
during  the  recreation  hours,  playing  volley-ball  or 
baseball,  or  practising  for  the  track  games.  They  are 
surprisingly  efficient  at  all  these  games,  and  the  per- 
formances of  the  college  boys  in  baseball  and  track 
athletics  would  be  hard  to  beat  at  any  of  the  smaller 
American  colleges.  The  recent  return  of  the  success- 
ful Filipino  team  which  won  the  Far  Eastern  Olympic 
games  at  Shanghai,  over  China  and  Japan,  was  the 
occasion  for  a  great  demonstration  in  Manila.  They 
had  carried  off  the  palm  in  tennis,  baseball,  sprints, 
pole  vault,  and  jumps,  and  the  shorter  swimming-con- 
tests. The  Japanase  won  at  longer  distances,  both  in 
the  foot-races  and  in  the  water.  Gone  are  the  days 
in  the  Philippines  when  any  form  of  exercise  except 
that  on  horseback  was  discouraged  by  the  Spanish  as 
ungentlemanly ;  the  enthusiasm  for  athletics  is  spread- 
ing fast;  in  December,  1920,  the  Philippines  led  all 
countries  in  the  purchase  of  athletic  and  sporting- 
goods  from  the  United  States. 


246     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

The  healthy,  bright-eyed,  and  athletic  Filipina  girls 
are  especially  a  revelation  to  the  other  races  of  the 
Orient.  I  remember  an  exhibition  given  by  the  Fil- 
ipina girls'  baseball  team  at  Peking,  which  aroused 
great  curiosity  and  surprise.  A  member  of  the  Chinese 
cabinet  who  stood  by  me,  himself  an  old  Andover 
baseball-player,  rushed  off  to  try  to  secure  the  bats 
and  balls  for  Chinese  use.  In  the  grandstand  about 
us  were  numbers  of  painted  Chinese  ladies  with  crip- 
pled feet  and  tottering  gait.  No  doubt  they  were  more 
shocked  than  pleased  by  the  artless  vigor  and  spirited 
good  health  of  the  Filipina  maidens. 

The  attitude  of  the  provincial  Filipinos  toward  the 
Government  is  far  more  respectful  than  that  American 
officials  are  accustomed  to  at  home.  Respect  for  author- 
ity is  an  old-time  Malay  trait,  and  has  been  intensi- 
fied in  the  Philippines  by  the  Spanish  regime.  The 
Spaniards  punished  an  atentado  contra  la  autoridad 
very  severely  indeed.  The  habit  of  mind  of  the 
paisano,  or  countryman,  is  still  one  of  submission  to 
authority.  He  was  accustomed  for  many  centuries  to 
submit  to  all  kinds  of  imposition,  if  not  cruelty  and 
abuse,  from  the  Spanish  governors.  Then  came  revolt 
and  revolution.  Even  to-day  he  will  carry  on  for  a 
long  time  against  real  or  fancied  governmental  injus- 
tices until  the  inevitable  explosion  comes.  He  is  far, 
far  easier,  however,  to  lead  than  to  drive.  The  attitude 
toward  government  as  something  inevitable  and  su- 
preme is  gradually  breaking  down  under  the  spread 
of  democratic  ideas.  He  is  beginning  to  perceive  that 
he,  himself,  is  the  Government,  but  his  feeling  is  never 
asserted,  and  disrespect  toward  and  resistance  to  the 
Government  are  infrequent.     Grievance  has  hereto- 


IN  THE  PROVINCES  247 

fore  led  to  flight  to  the  mountains  and  the  forming 
of  lawless  bands,  or  remontados,  who  in  some  inacces- 
sible spot  in  the  hills  sought  freedom  from  government 
injustice.  To-day  these  bands  have  almost  disap- 
peared and  the  citizen  with  a  grievance  resorts  to 
political  speeches  and  complaints  in  the  public  press. 

Nevertheless,  this  remembrance  of  many  generations 
under  a  despotic  system,  when  a  government  was  some- 
thing apart  from  the  people,  mysterious  and  full  of 
injustices,  lingers  on.  A  natural  result  was  the  uni- 
versal sympathy,  of  which  more  than  a  little  still 
survives,  for  him  who  has  been  caught  in  the  toils  of 
the  law.  The  executive  is  constantly  besieged  with 
requests  for  pardon  or  commutation  of  the  sentence 
of  a  criminal ;  the  prisoner,  when  finally  released,  goes 
directly  back  into  his  home  community,  little  the  worse 
in  public  esteem  for  the  sentence  he  has  served.  A  re- 
freshing difference,  you  will  say,  from  the  American 
system  of  proscribing  and  persecuting  the  ex-convict ! 
Yes,  perhaps  so;  but  also,  most  unfortunately,  evi- 
dence that  the  people  do  not  fully  understand  that  they 
themselves  are  making  the  laws  for  their  own  pro- 
tection, and  that  the  criminal  statutes  are  not  imposed 
upon  them  by  some  remote  and  foreign  authority. 

Other  inheritances  from  the  paternal  government  of 
former  days  remain  in  the  petitions  or  addresses  to 
the  governor-general.  I  well  recall  one  day  in  1915 
when  the  governor  of  a  near-by  province  came  to  me 
for  advice  in  his  troubles.  "You  know,"  he  said,  "I 
look  on  you  as  my  father.*'  A  few  hours  later,  the 
same  morning,  the  Municipal  Board  of  Manila  came 
to  my  office  for  assistance ;  their  spokesman  began  by 
stating  that  they  looked  upon  me  as  their  grandfather ! 


248    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

This,  coming  from  Don  Isabelo  de  los  Reyes,  who  was 
twenty  years  my  senior,  quite  floored  me. 

To  the  courts  the  Filipinos  pay  an  almost  exag- 
gerated deference.  The  judge,  sitting  without  a  jury, 
represents  in  his  person  the  full  majesty  of  the  law. 
The  ability  of  Filipinos  as  judicial  officers  was  recog- 
nized even  under  Spain;  under  the  United  States  the 
number  of  Filipino  judges  rapidly  increased.  Nothing 
seems  to  have  marred  the  respect  in  which  the  courts 
have  been  held  until  within  the  last  few  years.  Now, 
with  the  spread  of  representative  government  and  the 
increase  of  the  electorate,  contested  election  cases  are 
frequent  in  the  Courts  of  First  Instance,  and  are  con- 
ducted with  much  party  feeling  by  the  contestants. 
In  some  cases,  through  the  production  of  myriads  of 
witnesses  and  other  dilatory  devices  not  unknown  to 
counsel  elsewhere,  the  respondent  has  been  able  to 
delay  the  trial  for  months  and  even  years.  The  idea 
obviously  is  to  secure  delay  in  the  decision  until  the 
one  seated  de  facto  shall  have  been  able  to  serve  out 
his  term  of  office.  Certain  of  the  judges  have  appeared 
totally  unable  to  despatch  their  business,  despite  the 
constant  urging  of  the  Secretary  of  Justice,  and  much 
public  resentment  has  been  occasioned  in  several  prov- 
inces. There  is  no  suggestion  that  the  judges  have 
been  tempted  by  any  pecuniary  considerations,  but  it 
is  sometimes  suspected  that  the  influence  of  political 
or  personal  friendships  may  have  affected  them. 

If  the  people,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  come  to 
believe  that  they  cannot  secure  justice,  a  great  and 
permanent  injury  will  have  been  done  to  the  Govern- 
ment. The  consciousness  that  freedom  of  speech  is 
now  secured  to  them  by  the  Bill  of  Rights  is  having 


IN  THE  PROVINCES  249 

an  evident  effect  among  them.  Decisions  of  even  the 
American  Supreme  Court  justices  in  election  cases  or 
upon  political  issues  are  nowadays  widely  debated  and 
sharply  criticized  among  the  Filipinos.  The  judicial 
veto  has  disclosed  as  strong  differences  between  the 
Supreme  Oourt  and  the  Legislature,  as  it  has  in  the 
United  States.  The  judiciary  is  now  under  frequent 
criticism  for  the  first  time,  and  the  old-time  almost 
unnatural  deference  to  the  courts  is  rapidly  passing 
away. 

This  stimulation  of  public  opinion  is  in  itself  a  valu- 
able check  upon  the  judiciary;  it  should,  however,  be 
carefully  directed  by  the  leaders  of  the  people  into 
conservative  and  reasonable  channels.  As  Lord  Bryce 
has  said,  "  Public  opinion  is  in  all  countries  produced 
by  the  few  and  improved  and  solidified  by  the  many. ' ' 
Those  partizan  leaders  in  the  Philippines  who  in  the 
heat  of  party  passion  are  most  severe  in  their  denun- 
ciation of  the  courts  are  assuming  a  heavy  respon- 
sibility. 

The  growth  of  free  discussion  of  public  questions 
in  the  provinces  is,  however,  one  of  the  healthiest  signs 
of  the  times.  The  newspaper  press  in  circulation  is 
very  limited,  and  public  opinion  is  generally  formed  in 
public  meetings,  after  the  fashion  of  our  town  meetings 
in  New  England.  In  the  provinces  they  are  coming 
more  and  more  to  the  point  of  taking  a  proper  interest 
in  the  actions  of  their  elected  representatives.  Upon 
this,  security  of  their  democratic  institutions  must  de- 
pend. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

New  Ventures  in  Commerce  and  Finance 

IN  the  Philippines,  a  purely  agricultural  country, 
very  little  opportunity  existed  until  the  recent  in- 
dustrial boom  for  the  development  of  ''Captains  of 
Industry."  The  internal  trade,  while  considerable  in 
the  aggregate,  has  always  been  conducted  by  small 
Chinese  peddlers  or  shopkeepers  throughout  the  prov- 
inces, and  the  money  thus  earned  by  them  was  usually 
sent  back  to  China,  and  never  invested  in  the  country, 
— a  practice  which  aroused  the  indignation  of  the 
Spanish  governors  from  time  to  time.  Even  the  Mex- 
ican silver  dollars  brought  over  by  the  galleons  in  olden 
days  soon  disappeared  from  the  Philippines  and  reap- 
peared on  the  China  coast.  The  Filipinos  have  always 
been  a  farming  people,  and  learned  but  little  of  trade 
and  finance,  in  which  respect  they  resemble  the  Rus- 
sian people  and  the  Turks;  even  the  aristocracies  of 
European  countries  before  the  war  knew  little  of  com- 
merce, and  looked  down  on  " trade."  Up  to  the  last 
decade  the  few  rich  Filipinos  were  landed  proprietors, 
such  as  the  Roxas  family.  Foreign  trade  was  until 
recently  closely  controlled  by  a  few  prominent  British 
or  Spanish  firms;  later,  Americans  and  Germans  en- 
tered the  field  of  commerce.  "The  Filipina  woman  was 
always  the  business  head  of  the  family,  took  the  wages 
or  earnings  of  her  men-folk,  went  to  market,  and  nego- 
tiated the  sale  of  the  crops.    Even  to-day  most  of  the 

250 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  251 

Filipino  tiendas  or  shops  throughout  the  islands  are 
kept  by  women. 

With  the  coming  of  American  ideas  and  ambitions 
the  Filipinos  became  interested  in  the  opportunities 
for  trade ;  they  were  repeatedly  told  that  they  would 
not  be  fit  for  independence  unless  they  learned  to  take 
their  share  in  the  commerce  of  the  country.  Begin- 
nings had  been  made  by  the  Fernandez  Brothers,  who 
established  a  successful  line  of  inter-island  steamers, 
and  the  Earnshaw  Brothers,  whose  shipyard  in  Manila 
laid  the  foundations  for  the  family  fortune.  Their 
fellow-countrymen  were  ambitious  to  emulate  them. 
The  most  successful  has  been  Don  Vicente  Madrigal, 
who,  starting  fifteen  years  ago  with  a  capital  of  two 
thousand  pesos  in  the  coal  business,  built  up',  through 
lucky  speculations  in  ships  and  in  wise  contracts  for 
coal,  a  fortune  estimated  at  one  time  to  amount  to 
fifteen  million  pesos.  An  all-Filipino  cigar  factory 
was  established  in  Manila  and  has  been  fairly  success- 
ful, but  the  bulk  of  the  tobacco  trade  and  of  the 
manufacture  of  cigars  and  cigarettes  remains  in  the 
hands  of  Spaniards  and  Americans.  Ten  years  ago 
the  sugar  hacenderos  began  to  agitate  for  capital  to 
enlarge  their  old-fashioned  muscovado  mills  into  mod- 
ern sugar  centrals,  a  movement  which  resulted  by  1921 
in  the  erection  of  some  twenty-three  new  centrals  in 
American  or  Filipino  hands. 

Then  came  the  sudden  boom  in  cocoanut  oil,  and 
during  the  years  1917-19  mills  sprang  up  almost  over- 
night. The  excitement  over  the  rapid  creation  of 
Filipino  oil  millionaires  led  to  excesses  in  over-capi- 
talization and  expansion,  as  might  have  been  expected. 
By  1920  the  boom  had  passed,  the  price  of  oil  had 


252     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

fallen,  and  the  reorganization  of  various  of  the  oil 
companies  will  take  some  years  before  they  are  placed 
upon  a  sound  financial  footing.  It  must  be  added  that 
Filipinos  were  not  alone  in  this  movement;  English 
and  American  capitalists  were  carried  away  by  the 
visions  of  sudden  wealth;  the  operations  in  oil  of  a 
Britisher  brought  several  of  the  banks  to  the  edge  of 
disaster  by  1920,  and  one  American  speculator  in- 
dulged in  such  "high  finance"  in  an  attempt  to  secure 
control  of  the  oil  trade  that  his  operations  were  inves- 
tigated by  the  Philippine  Senate  in  1918.  Early  in  the 
year  1921,  two  foreign  financiers  were  indicted  in 
Manila  for  the  practice  of  getting  money  from  the 
banks  to  cover  their  extensive  operations  by  giving 
as  security  quedanes  or  warehouse  receipts  for  oil  and 
hemp  which  were  not  in  existence. 

The  sale  by  the  Alien  Property  Custodian  of  sev- 
eral large  one-time  German  houses  gave  the  Filipinos 
an  opportunity  of  buying  in  at  auction  commercial  and 
import  businesses,  of  which  they  took  advantage.  The 
prices  paid  by  them  were  far  too  high,  however,  and 
the  disturbances  in  the  world  markets  since  the  Armis- 
tice have  nearly  ruined  these  investors. 

Sugar,  oil,  hemp,  and  cotton  piece  goods  fluctuated  so 
violently  in  price,  during  and  after  the  war,  that  the 
moment  was  most  inopportune  for  the  first  ventures 
of  Filipino  capitalists  into  the  field  of  industry  and 
commerce.  Sugar  at  the  present  time  still  offers  such 
enormous  gains  that  it  may  be  the  salvation  of  their 
general  financial  condition.  The  experiences  of  re- 
cent years  have  not  been  favorable  to  the  growth  of 
that  prudence  and  steadiness  in  capital  operations  so 
necessary  to  permanent  success;  this  is  all  the  more 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  253 

unfortunate  because  the  tendency  of  the  provincial 
producers  has  always  been  to  speculate  upon  their 
crops  by  holding  out  for  a  higher  price  instead  of  being 
satisfied  with  a  reasonable  profit ;  too  often  this  holding 
for  the  top  of  the  market  has  resulted  in  selling  later 
at  the  bottom. 

Thomas  Jefferson  may  have  been  right  in  wishing 
to  preserve  the  United  States  as  an  agricultural  coun- 
try, but  modern  industrialism  and  commerce  are  too 
strong  a  force  for  any  country  to  resist,  if  it  would; 
if  the  Filipinos  have  eaten  of  the  bitter  as  well  as  the 
sweet  of  financial  enterprise,  they  may  derive  some  sat- 
isfaction from  the  reflection  that  financial  disturbances 
from  1914  to  1921  were  not  confined  to  their  country, 
but  were  of  world-wide  occurrence.  What  has  hap- 
pened, for  example,  to  the  crop  of  war  millionaires 
in  New  York? 

An  important  chapter  of  this  discussion  is  the  ven- 
ture of  the  Philippine  Government  in  public  ownership 
or  control  of  various  industries  in  their  own  country ; 
Mr.  Charles  Edward  Russell,  the  author,  during  a 
recent  visit  of  inspection  to  the  Philippines,  stated 
that  the  feeling  directed  against  the  administration, 
among  so  many  of  our  fellow-countrymen  there,  was 
based  really  upon  the  activities  of  the  Government  in 
public  ownership.  This  interfered,  he  said,  with  oppor- 
tunities for  investment.  However,  the  growth  of  the 
idea  in  the  Philippines  was  not  due  to  a  desire  to 
preempt  the  field  for  investments,  but  arose  simply 
and  solely  from  the  refusal  of  sufficient  American  and 
foreign  capital  to  enter  the  country. 

From  the  beginning  of  American  civil  government  in 
the  Philippines,  the  administration  had  taken  in  hand 


254     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  management  of  various  utilities  for  which  there 
was  then  offering  no  adequate  private  enterprise; 
thus,  the  Insular  Government  owned  and  operated  an 
ice-  and  cold-storage  plant ;  a  printing-office  for  official 
publications ;  various  coast-guard  ships ;  the  telegraph 
and  inter-island  cable  systems,  with  a  cable-ship  for 
the  repair  of  them ;  a  purchasing  agent  and  a  Bureau 
of  Supply  for  all  the  departments  of  the  Government 
and,  of  course,  a  Bureau  of  Public  Works.  The  officials 
of  the  Bureau  of  Supply  were  always  instructed  to 
purchase  when  possible  from  local  merchants,  but  the 
existence  of  this  bureau  was  from  the  beginning  a 
source  of  criticism  and  attack.  The  ice-plant  was  a 
powerful  influence  in  keeping  down  the  price  of  ice, 
but  efforts  made  by  the  Government  in  1914  to  sell 
the  ice-plant,  and  in  1920  to  abolish  the  Bureau  of 
Supply,  met  with  no  success.  The  price-fixing  of 
staple  commodities  by  the,  Government  during  the 
years  of  war,  1917-18,  was  generally  recognized  as 
being  dictated  from  Washington  and  regarded  as  a 
necessary  incident  of  the  war ;  on  the  whole,  it  may  be 
said  that  price-fixing,  except  in  the  case  of  the  rice 
crisis,  of  which  mention  has  already  been  made,  was  a 
failure,  and  did  more  eventual  harm  than  temporary 
good. 

The  first  step  in  " interference' '  with  capital  by  the 
new  Filipino-American  administration  was  the  crea- 
tion early  in  1914  of  a  Public  Utility  Commission  on 
the  model  of  the  New  Jersey  statute ;  this  has  proved 
a  success  and  has  rendered  generally  appreciated  ser- 
vices to  the  public.  Then  came  the  purchase  by  the 
Government  in  1916  of  the  main  transportation  system 
in  the  islands,  the  Manila  Railroad  Company. 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  255 

Whatever  may  be  the  view  of  the  reader  as  to  public 
ownership  of  railroads  in  the  United  States,  he  must 
remember  that  the  situation  is  entirely  different  in 
the  Philippines.  Indeed,  attention  should  be  given  to 
the  fact  that  the  railroads  are  generally  owned  and 
operated  by  the  governments  in  all  near-by  countries 
and  colonies.  Government  ownership  of  railroads  is 
the  rule  in  Japan,  Indo-China,  the  Federated  Malay 
States,  Java  and  Sumatra,  Burma,  Ceylon  and  British 
India.  In  China  the  administration  is  now  trying  to  get 
back  the  railroad  concessions  from  the  aggressive 
groups  of  foreign  capitalists  who  own  them;  the 
Chinese  have  been  thoroughly  alarmed  by  the  political 
use  made  of  railways  in  their  country  as  the  opening 
wedge  of  territorial  conquest  by  the  great  powers. 

The  causes  that  led  to  the  acquisition  of  the  system  in 
British  India  by  the  Government  were,  it  is  said,  sim- 
ilar to  those  in  the  Philippines.  The  Manila  Railroad 
Company  was  an  English  enterprise,  first  started  in 
1888 ;  the  lines  are  entirely  in  the  island  of  Luzon,  and 
extend  north  and  south  from  Manila  for,  altogether, 
about  one  thousand  kilometers.  New  railroad  con- 
struction was  government-aided  soon  after  American 
occupation  by  an  agreement  on  the  part  of  the  adminis- 
tration to  guarantee  the  interest  on  the  bonds  to  be 
issued.  The  line  had  never  been  very  profitable,  and 
no  doubt  the  English  capitalists  were  getting  tired  of 
it ;  at  all  events,  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1914, 
no  more  English  capital  was  forthcoming.  The  Phil- 
ippine Government,  from  1911,  had  been  lending  from 
the  Gold  Standard  Fund  all  sums  for  new  construction, 
and  were  usually  required  to  pay  a  substantial  sum 
each  year  in  default  on  the  interest  on  the  railroad 


256     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

bonds.  The  management  was  still  all  English,  but  an 
American  government  railway  supervisor  was  detailed 
to  see  that  the  construction  money  was  properly  spent. 
In  spite  of  his  efforts,  the  construction  work,  especially 
in  the  right-of-way  department,  had  by  1912  become 
a  public  scandal.  Through  1913  and  1914  constant 
efforts  were  made  to  force  the  company  to  change  its 
methods,  but  in  vain.  This  scandal  arose  through  the 
practice  of  the  railroad  company's  agents  buying  up 
the  necessary  land  at  nominal  figures  from  the  owners, 
and  then  selling  it  to  the  company  at  a  high  figure. 
This  swindle  had  grown  to  gigantic  proportions, 
and  about  nine  millions  of  pesos  had  been  lost  in 
this  way, — a  sum  upon  which  the  government  guar- 
antee of  four  per  cent,  interest  on  the  bonds  had  to  be 
met.  Two  Spaniards  and  a  Filipino  were  the  active 
agents  of  the  railroad  right-of-way  department  in  these 
transactions.  The  Filipino  was  subsequently  sentenced 
to  prison  for  his  part  in  them;  the  Spaniards  had 
escaped  to  Spain  and  could  not  be  extradited  from 
their  own  country. 

In  spite  of  our  efforts  the  railroad  management 
would  not  or  could  not  change  the  system,  nor  reform 
these  abuses.  This  led  finally  to  an  offer  in  1915  on  the 
part  of  the  Government  to  purchase,  at  a  price  of 
$4,000,000,  the  whole  system.  The  offer  was  finally 
accepted  after  tedious  negotiations,  conducted  for  the 
Government  chiefly  by  Clyde  A.  DeWitt,  Public  Utility 
Commissioner.  Dissatisfaction  at  the  terms  was 
loudly  expressed  in  the  stockholders'  meetings  which 
ratified  the  sale  in  London. 

Meanwhile  the  system  had  been  allowed  by  the  man- 
agement to  run  down  to  such  a  point  that  during  the 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  257 

first  three  years  of  government  ownership  the  profits 
were  devoted  entirely  to  the  necessary  work  of  repair 
to  road-bed,  buildings,  and  rolling-stock.  This  was 
rendered  more  difficult  by  the  virtual  impossibility 
during  1917-18  of  getting  materials  and  supplies  under 
export  license  from  England  or  the  United  States ;  and 
by  the  necessity  of  meeting  the  war  prices  for  coal, 
which  had  risen  from  twelve  pesos  to  forty-eight  pesos 
a  ton. 

The  company,  since  1918,  has  been  organized  as  an 
entity  separate  from  the  Government,  which,  however, 
is  the  sole  stockholder.  The  voting  power  of  the  stock 
is  vested  in  a  board  consisting  of  the  governor-general 
and  the  two  presidents  of  the  houses  of  the  Legisla- 
ture. The  board  of  directors  has  a  majority  of  Fil- 
ipinos, and  Senate  President  Quezon  is  the  president, 
serving  without  salary.  Mr.  Ernest  J.  Westerhouse, 
formerly  the  able  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Public 
Works,  is  the  general  manger,  and  is  entitled  to  much 
credit  for  the  success  of  his  administration  in  building 
up  and  repairing  the  system;  he  has,  moreover,  suc- 
ceeded largely  in  rooting  out  the  shocking  system  of 
graft  among  the  employees,  prevalent  under  the  pri- 
vate management,  which,  when  frequently  challenged, 
has  with  cynical  indifference  replied:  "What  can  you 
expect  of  the  natives?"  That  it  was  not  the  fault 
of  the  " natives"  was  pointed  out  to  them  by  compari- 
son with  the  Philippine  Government,  which  at  the 
same  time  was  comparatively  free  from  graft,  though 
employing  many  thousands  more  Filipinos  than  the 
railroad. 

The  purchase  of  the  Manila  Eailroad  Company  was 
greeted  at  the  time  with  volleys  of  criticism  on  the 


258    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

part  of  the  American  local  press;  it  is  now  univer- 
sally accepted  as  a  success,  and  no  arguments  are 
advanced  against  the  further  negotiations  now  pend- 
ing for  the  acquisition  by  the  Government  of  the  two 
American-built  lines  in  the  islands  of  Cebu  and  Iloilo. 
While  the  Southern  Island  system  of  the  Philippine 
Railway  Company  has  been  well  and  honestly  managed, 
the  construction  work  was  far  too  expensive  for  the 
service  required,  and  the  government  payments  upon 
the  deficit  in  interest  on  the  bonds  have,  since  their 
issuance  in  1908,  already  amounted  to  more  than  six 
and  one  half  million  pesos. 

The  creation  of  a  Government  Sugar  Central  Board 
has  already  been  mentioned ;  except  for  the  American 
companies,  one  in  Laguna  Province  and  the  other  in 
the  island  of  Mindoro,  both  of  which  were  struggling 
to  get  started  and  experimenting  with  the  subsequently 
modified  plan  of  growing  their  own  sugar-cane,  the 
islands  were  hopelessly  handicapped  by  the  fact  that 
substantially  all  the  sugar  produced  was  muscovado, 
or  low  grade,  and  could  find  a  market  only  locally  or 
on  the  China  coast.  Both  of  the  American  investments 
above  mentioned  were  given  government  backing  and 
financial  aid  with  the  hearty  acquiescence  of  Filipino 
officials.  The  government  board  was  created  to  supply 
the  funds  necessary  for  modern  machinery  for  new 
centrals.  It  negotiated  an  agreement  in  1915  with  an 
English  company  for  the  machinery  for  one  new 
central,  but  the  deal  fell  through  because  the  English 
concern  could  not  guarantee  delivery  during  the  war. 
Thereafter  the  field  was  left  to  private  enterprise, 
since  several  new  American  investments  were  forth- 
coming, and  a  string  of  new  centrals  was  projected  by 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  259 

Filipinos  themselves  with  money  from  the  Philippine 
National  Bank. 

The  coal  shortage  in  the  islands  was  one  of  the  great- 
est financial  hardships  caused  by  the  war.  The  price 
rose  from  about  eleven  pesos  to  nearly  sixty  pesos  a 
ton.  Although  the  Philippines  were  known  to  have 
large  coal  fields,  no  capital  was  offered  to  develop 
them.  Philippine  industries  were  obliged  to  send  to 
Japan,  China,  Australia,  North  Borneo,  and  even  to 
Calcutta  for  coal.  The  rise  in  freight  rates  made  the 
price  almost  prohibitive.  The  Government  alone, 
through  the  Manila  Railroad  Company  and  the  Bureau 
of  Supply,  consumed  annually  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  tons  of  coal.  At  the  new  prices,  this 
one  item  meant  at  least  three  and  one  half  million  pesos 
more  to  be  found  by  government  and  railroad  budget- 
makers  every  year.  It  was  determined  that,  even 
though  prices  might  fall  later  on,  after  the  war,  the 
Philippines  should  never  again  be  caught  in  this 
awkward  position. 

The  Legislature  thereupon,  in  1917,  chartered  the 
National  Coal  Company  and  supplied  the  capital  in 
successive  grants  up  to  the  amount  of  three  and  one 
half  million  pesos  by  the  end  of  1920.  The  board  of 
directors,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Manila  Railroad,  has  a 
majority  of  Filipinos;  the  manager  is  an  American, 
the  first  being  Mr.  Clifford  H.  French,  ex-auditor  of 
the  Government.  When  he  left  the  coal  company  to 
enter  private  commercial  life,  Mr.  Claude  Russell,  the 
efficient  Director  of  Public  Works,  was  selected  to 
succeed  him.  The  National  Coal  Company  is  just  en- 
tering upon  a  large  production  of  coal,  but  has  suffered 


260     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

from  inability  to  secure  from  other  countries  exper- 
ienced coal  operatives. 

The  National  Cement  Company  was  founded  along 
lines  similar  to  the  National  Coal  Company.  In  the 
Philippines  cement  has  cost  in  recent  years  more  than 
twice  its  market  price  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
Government  alone  has  thus  been  obliged  to  expend 
in  its  building  program  about  three  million  pesos  a 
year  too  much.  Cement  is  the  material  for  all  per- 
manent improvements  such  as  bridges,  culverts, 
school-houses,  and  the  larger  public  buildings.  The 
materials  for  an  excellent  grade  of  cement  exist  in  the 
Philippines,  notably  in  the  island  of  Cebu.  Private 
capital  had  constructed  a  cement  mill  on  the  Laguna 
de  Bay,  but  this  mill  had  failed  because  of  its  remote 
location,  being  too  far  from  the  raw  materials,  and 
because  the  German  machinery  employed  was  anti- 
quated. This,  incidentally,  was  one  of  the  many  unsuc- 
cessful local  business  enterprises  of  the  Catholic 
Church. 

Impelled  by  the  repeated  suggestions  of  the  man- 
ager of  the  Manila  Railroad  Company  and  of  the 
builders  in  the  Bureau  of  Public  Works,  the  Govern- 
ment undertook  in  1920  to  erect  its  own  cement  manu- 
factory. Such  a  resolution  demands  a  good  deal  of 
moral  courage,  because  it  exposes  the  administration 
to  constant  sniping  under  cover  from  those  whose 
financial  interests  are  affected, — in  this  instance  the 
importers  of  Japanese  cement  and  the  owners  of  the 
defunct  cement  plant  on  the  lake.  The  plan  evolved 
was  to  interest  a  prominent  American  cement  man  to 
put  up  the  plant  with  government  money,  giving  him 
the  right  to  purchase  at  the  end  of  a  certain  date,  under 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  261 

a  perpetual  contract  to  furnish  cement  to  the  Govern- 
ment at  cost  plus  ten  per  cent.  The  saving  to  the  Gov- 
ernment is  expected  to  equal  annually  the  whole  amount 
of  capital  originally  invested  by  it. 

The  National  Development  Company  has  the  broad- 
est charter  of  any  of  these  government  auxiliaries ;  it 
really  permits  the  Philippine  Government  to  enter  in- 
directly into  almost  any  sort  of  business  deemed  to 
be  in  the  interests  of  the  people  of  the  islands.  It 
became  the  target  for  a  concentrated  attack  on  the 
part  of  the  fiber  monopolies  in  the  United  States  when 
it  was  believed  by  them  that  the  National  Development 
Company  was  about  to  enter  the  hemp  market  to  sus- 
tain prices  after  the  manner  of  the  Comision  Regu- 
ladora  of  Yucatan.  This  step,  however,  was  not  taken, 
and  the  chief  functions  performed  since  its  organiza- 
tion in  1919  have  been  to  furnish  capital  for  the  coal 
and  cement  companies  mentioned  in  the  preceding  par- 
agraphs; several  tracts  of  land  have  also  been  taken 
over  by  the  National  Development  Company  with  a 
view  of  sale  later  to  the  general  public  in  order  to  avert 
threatened  agrarian  troubles. 

The  largest  business  venture  of  the  Government, 
however,  has  been  in  the  charter  and  operation  of  the 
Philippine  National  Bank,  which  was  created  in  1916 
by  act  of  the  Legislature.  From  a  modest  beginning, 
this  bank  grew  like  Jack's  beanstalk  in  the  fairy  story. 
In  three  years  its  resources  totaled  230,000,000  pesos. 
Then  the  setback  came,  and  the  hard  times  of  post- 
armistice  finance  have  pressed  upon  it  with  almost 
crushing  effect.  The  fact  that  other  banks  in  the 
islands  suffered  to  an  almost  equal  degree  does  not 


262    MY  SEVEN  YEAES  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

serve  to  mitigate  the  criticism  of  the  Philippine  Na- 
tional Bank. 

There  were  in  1915  in  the  islands  five  banking  institu- 
tions, two  branches  of  British  Oriental  banks,  one 
American  bank  which  followed  the  British  lead  like  a 
tail  to  a  kite,  one  Spanish-Filipino  bank  of  issue  con- 
trolled by  the  Catholic  Church,  and  another  church  or- 
ganization known  as  the  Monte  de  Piedad,  or  pawnshop. 

The  two  British  banks  and  the  American  enjoyed 
the  use  of  the  government  deposits  at  one  per  cent, 
on  which  they  probably  made  an  average  of  seven  per 
cent.  net.  They  made  practically  no  investments  in  the 
islands,  dealing  almost  exclusively  with  the  export  and 
import  trade.  There  was  much  complaint  on  the  part 
of  the  public  that  the  government  deposits  were  used 
to  discriminate  against  American  and  Filipino  trade. 
The  foundation  of  the  Philippine  National  Bank  natur- 
ally was  displeasing  to  these  institutions  already  in 
the  field,  and  their  hostility  has  followed  it  ever  since. 

The  new  government  bank  was  given  the  right  to 
issue  notes,  to  do  a  commercial  business,  and  to  invest 
not  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  its  capital  in  agri- 
cultural loans.  The  pressure  to  restrict  by  charter  its 
operations  to  those  of  a  purely  agricultural  bank  was 
resisted  because  of  the  history  of  the  Agricultural 
Bank  in  Egypt,  where  the  people  who  had  borrowed 
what  in  its  final  analysis  was  the  money  of  their  own 
Government,  were  not  readily  induced  to  pay  off  their 
mortgages  when  these  were  due,  with  the  result  that 
the  bank  was  in  danger  of  becoming,  through  fore- 
closure, the  largest  landlord  in  Egypt. 

The  Philippine  National  Bank  was  fortunate  in  se- 
curing as  its  first  president,  in  1916,  Professor  H. 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  263 

Parker  Willis,  of  Columbia  University,  Secretary  of 
the  Federal  Reserve  Board.  He  founded  the  institu- 
tion on  approved  banking  lines,  and  returned  after 
about  a  year  to  resume  his  duties  at  home.  His  chief 
difficulties  were  in  finding  a  trained  personnel,  since 
repeated  efforts  to  secure  Americans  resulted  in  the 
coming  of  only  three  or  four,  while  the  Filipinos  were 
untrained  in  banking.  When  he  returned  to  the  United 
States,  Mr.  Samuel  Ferguson  became  president  and 
served  until  his  death  in  1918;  he  was  succeeded  by 
the  vice-president,  General  Venancio  Concepcion. 

Can  any  one  who  was  in  Manila  in  1917  and  1918 
forget  the  financial  boom  of  those  years?  Men  were 
"getting  rich  quick"  through  oil,  hemp,  coal,  and  ship- 
ping. The  Philippine  National  Bank  dealt  out  loans 
as  though  the  supply  was  inexhaustible.  The  chief 
mistake,  however,  was  that  the  government  deposits 
in  the  bank,  which  should  have  been  kept  in  New  York 
and  which  constituted  part  of  the  current  reserve  fund, 
to  the  extent  of  more  than  $40,000,000  were  withdrawn 
by  the  bank  and  lent  out  in  the  Philippines  to  finance 
the  erection  of  a  string  of  sugar-mills.  In  1919,  after 
the  Armistice,  came  the  turn  in  the  tide.  Ever  since 
then  the  Philippine  National  Bank  has  been  slowly 
liquidating  its  credits,  but  that  is  difficult  enough  in  a 
falling  market.  In  1919  Secretary  Baker,  on  the  ur- 
gent request  of  the  Philippine  Government,  sent  a 
party  of  expert  bank  examiners  from  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
headed  by  Mr.  Francis  Coates,  Jr.,  to  look  into  the 
affairs  of  the  Philippine  National  Bank.  After  six 
months  spent  in  the  Philippines,  they  rendered  a  re- 
port severely  critical  of  the  overindulgence  in  loans 
and  credits,  and  the  lack  of  experienced  management 


264     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

in  the  bank,  but  reassuring  as  to  the  question  of  per- 
sonal honesty  of  its  officials,  and  hopeful  as  to  the 
eventual  outcome.  Then  the  paralysis  of  the  foreign 
markets  for  Philippine  staples  came  suddenly  in  July, 
1920,  and  from  that  date  onward  the  inability  of  the 
bank  to  force  liquidation  of  its  loans,  and  thus  to 
repay  to  the  Government  its  currency  reserve  fund, 
has  greatly  increased  the  financial  difficulties  in  the 
Philippines;  the  frozen  assets  of  the  bank  have  tied 
up  a  large  part  of  the  capital  of  the  Government  both 
insular  and  provincial.  In  the  autumn  of  1919,  the 
resignation  of  General  Concepcion  was  accepted,  the 
bank  rechartered  on  slightly  modified  lines,  and  a  new 
general  manager,  Mr.  E.  W.  Wilson  from  San  Fran- 
cisco, an  experienced  banker,  brought  out  to  take 
charge  with  all  the  powers  of  the  former  president. 

The  Philippine  National  Bank  has  rendered  sub- 
stantial service  to  the  country,  in  financing  the  Lib- 
erty Loans  and  the  purchase  of  alien  property  which 
it  was  compelled  to  pay  for  in  American  dollars,  thus 
losing  over  one  million  pesos;  in  opening  the  field 
of  commerce  and  investment  to  Americans  and  Fili- 
pinos alike,  and  in  founding  the  basis  of  great  fu- 
ture prosperity  in  the  Philippines  through  the  new 
sugar  centrals  which  are  just  now  coming  into  opera- 
tion. For  the  shortcomings  and  mistakes  of  the  bank 
Filipinos  were  only  partly  responsible,  but  they  have 
received  all  the  blame.  Politics,  always  to  be  feared 
in  a  government  bank,  have  played  but  little  part  in 
the  management,  and  then  chiefly  in  the  sense  of  gen- 
eral policies  intended  to  benefit  the  country  as  a  whole. 

Meanwhile,  the  task  of  the  government  officials  in 
the  Department  of  Finance  became  increasingly  diffi- 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  265 

cult ;  they  were  confronted  with  the  duty  of  maintain- 
ing the  parity  of  the  peso  at  two  for  one  with  the 
United  States  dollar.  This  is  an  unusual  responsibility 
for  a  modern  government,  but  the  system  of  a  gold 
standard  fund  had  been  adopted  substantially  upon 
the  model  worked  in  British  India  and  the  Straits  Set- 
tlements. It  is  practicable  in  all  these  countries  only 
in  fairly  normal  times.  When  the  export  markets  fell 
absolutely  dead  in  1920-21,  the  rupee  fell  to  a  discount 
of  about  thirty-three  per  cent.,  the  Straits  dollars 
about  the  same,  and  the  peso,  eleven  per  cent.  This 
was  attributed  by  some  critics  to  the  impairment  of 
the  currency  reserve  fund  for  investments  in  sugar 
centrals  by  the  Philippine  National  Bank.  That  the 
weak  situation  of  this  fund  was  a  contributing  factor, 
cannot  be  denied,  but  it  has  become  increasingly  clear 
in  these  post-war  years  that  there  is  a  very  limited 
amount  of  real  money  in  the  world  and,  of  course,  for- 
eign commerce  must  be  conducted  chiefly  upon  credit; 
that  such  credit  must  be  based  upon  the  ability  of  a 
country  to  produce  and  especially  to  sell  its  products. 
The  Philippines  during  these  years  produced  more  of 
its  staples  than  it  ever  had  produced  before,  but  the 
market  absolutely  collapsed  from  July,  1920,  to  the 
spring  of  1921.  At  the  same  time  all  the  local  banks, 
despite  repeated  warnings  by  the  Government,  con- 
tinued to  facilitate  an  unprecedented  flood  of  imports 
into  the  Philippines,  upon  which  American  houses 
were  unloading  goods  ordered  during  the  war  years 
that  had  suddenly  become  unsalable  elsewhere.  Co- 
incident with  this  was  the  withdrawal  from  the  islands 
of  about  eighty  million  pesos  of  capital  in  Liberty 
Loans,  in  alien  property  purchases,  in  ocean  freights, 


266     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

and  by  the  increasing  expenditures  for  Filipinos 
abroad  and  in  the  United  States.  The  local  banks 
were  in  part  responsible  through  speculation  in  for- 
eign exchange  and  through  the  transfer  of  funds  to 
meet  the  pressing  demand  of  their  principals  at  home. 
The  Philippine  Government  was  in  the  position  of 
one  having  guaranteed  the  balance  of  trade  and  thus 
the  sale  of  exports  of  the  whole  country,  functions 
over  which  it  had  no  real  concern. 

The  financial  depression  was  not  confined  to  the  Phil- 
ippines ;  it  was  substantially  the  same  throughout  the 
Orient.  Shanghai,  for  example ;  in  1921  the  banks  were 
reported  to  be  in  a  critical  condition  through  the  re- 
fusal of  Chinese  merchants  to  receive  imports  for 
which  they  had  contracted  in  the  sum  of  nearly  one 
hundred  million  taels,  and  the  Chinese  dollar  was  fall- 
ing from  two  hundred  and  twenty  to  less  than  par.  As 
for  the  present  exchange  difficulties  of  the  European 
countries,  they  are  too  well-known  to  require  more  than 
passing  mention  here.  By  the  spring  of  1921  the 
peso  had  risen  to  only  a  seven  per  cent,  discount,  and 
now  that  Congress  has  passed  the  law  raising  the  debt 
limit  of  the  Philippines  from  $15,000,000  to  $30,000,000, 
the  Government  will  again  be  able  to  sell  exchange 
practically  at  par,  and  the  peso  should  rise  at  once  to 
parity. 

Repeated  requests  that  Congress  raise  the  debt  limit 
during  1920  received  no  attention,  and  the  attitude 
of  the  United  States  Treasury  was  unfriendly  to  any 
suggestion  of  assistance.  The  credit  of  the  Philippine 
Government  was  still  of  the  very  highest,  as  was 
shown  by  the  sale  in  America  of  six  million  dollars' 
worth  of  414  per  cent,  public-works  bonds  in  Novem- 


COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  267 

ber,  1920,  at  slightly  above  par.  The  debt  limit  of  the 
Philippines  had  been  fixed  before  the  recent  years  of 
prosperity  in  the  Philippines ;  with  the  great  expansion 
in  commerce  and  general  wealth  it  was  found  that  the 
small  boy  had  entirely  outgrown  his  clothes.  The  ad- 
ministrative chaos  visible  in  the  Washington  adminis- 
tration in  the  years  1919-20,  the  break-up  of  the 
government  organization  upon  party  lines,  had  its  re- 
flex in  the  Philippines.  We  were  absolutely  unable  to 
obtain  in  Washington  the  permission  to  help  ourselves 
by  raising  the  borrowing  capacity  in  the  islands,  or  to 
secure  any  financial  aid  or  backing  whatever  from  the 
home  Government.  The  situation  was  emphasized  in 
the  minds  of  the  Filipinos  by  contrast  with  the  ready 
assistance  the  United  States  Government  was  at  the 
same  time  extending  to  so  many  of  the  European  coun- 
tries, especially  to  the  group  of  small  new  republics 
there. 

During  eight  years  the  Filipinos  had  acquitted 
themselves  with  real  success  in  the  complicated  field 
of  government  finance.  Eeference  has  already  been 
made  to  the  introduction  of  the  budget  system  in 
1916,  five  years  before  it  was  adopted  in  the  United 
States ;  and  to  its  creditable  handling  by  Mr.  Barretto. 
Secretary  of  Finance,  and  its  regular  acceptance  by 
the  Legislature.  Appropriations  were  conservatively 
and  intelligently  made,  without  wasteful  extrava- 
gance, in  an  era  in  the  world  unparalleled  in  modern 
history  for  governmental  waste  and  incapacity  in 
handling  expenditures;  appropriations  by  the  Fil- 
ipinos were,  moreover,  entirely  free  from  that  form  of 
preelection  bribery  seen  in  so  many  other  countries 
which  consists  in  allotting  amounts  for  political  effect 


268     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

in  local  constituencies, — the  "  pie-counter, ' '  as  it  is 
known  in  Washington, — or  subsidies  to  classes  po- 
litically powerful  such  as  we  have  seen  made  for  al- 
leged veterans  of  the  war  between  the  States.  Taxes 
were  collected  justly  and  without  friction,  and  at  a 
minimum  and  constantly  decreasing  proportionate 
cost.  Courage  was  shown  in  investing  large  sums  of 
money  in  the  creation  of  industries  vital  to  the  coun- 
try. In  so  far  as  government  finance  bears  any  direct 
relation  to  the  general  prosperity  of  a  country,  it  is  to 
be  noted  that  during  these  eight  years  the  foreign 
commerce  of  the  Philippines  nearly  trebled  in  value. 
Against  all  this  must  be  offset  the  mistake  of  the  Phil- 
ippine National  Bank  in  tying  up  the  government  funds 
in  unliquid  loans  such  as  the  creation  of  sugar  centrals, 
— which,  incidentally,  will  prove  of  great  benefit  to  the 
country.  It  is  understood  that  certain  critics  have  now 
selected  the  financial  situation  at  present  existing  as 
a  triumphant  proof  of  the  incapacity  of  the  Filipinos. 
A  glance  at  the  financial  troubles  of  all  the  other  coun- 
tries of  the  world  might  be  illuminating,  but  none  are 
so  blind  as  those  who  will  not  see.  At  least,  an  effort 
should  be  made  to  remove  the  beam  from  our  own  eye 
before  proceeding  to  extract  the  mote  from  our  broth- 
er's eye. 


CHAPTER  XVIH 

The  Filipino  Attitude  toward  Foreigners 

THE  people  of  the  Philippines  have,  officially,  no 
foreign  relations ;  all  such  matters  are  conducted 
through  the  Department  of  State  in  Washington.  By- 
custom,  however,  many  questions  affecting  foreigners 
are  in  Manila  taken  up  directly  with  the  foreign  con- 
suls stationed  there.  This  refers  not  only  to  the  usual 
jurisdiction  of  consular  officers  in  commercial  or  per- 
sonal matters,  but  covers  a  wide  field  of  international 
law.  This  is  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  remote  situation  of 
the  Philippines,  the  expense  and  delay  of  cable  com- 
munications, and  the  cosmopolitan  character  of  the 
community.  It  was  especially  noticeable  during  the 
war,  when  the  energy  and  attention  of  the  home  gov- 
ernments were  absorbed  in  the  world  struggle. 

One  of  the  main  requisites  of  an  independent  gov- 
ernment is  the  ability  to  maintain  friendly  relations 
with  foreign  powers.  How  could  the  Filipinos  acquit 
themselves  in  this  respect?  Their  official  attitude  to- 
wards foreigners  has,  since  they  received  the  powers 
of  self-government,  been  uniformly  correct.  What  is 
their  real  feeling  toward  foreigners  and  how  would 
they  treat  them  in  the  event  that  independence  was 
given  them? 

We  can  prophesy  as  to  the  future  only  upon  the  basis 
of  present  events.  With  the  spread  of  democratic  gov- 
ernment and  of  universal  education,  the  sentiments 

269 


270    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

of  a  people  may  be  directed  by  their  government  in 
wise  and  prudent  channels ;  the  probability  is,  however, 
that  the  natural  instinct  or  racial  prejudice  of  the 
people  themselves  becomes  yearly  of  more  direct  in- 
fluence in  a  democracy.  It  is  nowadays  increasingly 
difficult  for  a  cabinet,  or  administration,  deliberating  in 
secret,  to  control  the  feelings  of  a  nation  toward  for- 
eigners. The  Boxer  Eebellion  in  China  was  a  clear 
indication  of  that  fact ;  the  Empress  Dowager  of  China 
was  obliged  to  join  with  the  Boxers,  or  else  lose  her 
throne.  In  Japan  to-day  the  Government  is  as  deter- 
mined as  that  in  the  United  States  to  preserve  the 
peace  with  her  trans-Pacific  neighbor ;  with  the  spread 
of  " jingo' '  journals  the  fixed  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment may  be  the  last  element  that  counts. 

The  easiest  appeal  for  the  orator  is  to  the  flag ;  from 
the  moment  that  is  mentioned,  men  cease  to  think; 
passion  takes  the  throne  of  reason  by  assault.  Nation- 
alism is  the  significant  note  of  the  last  two  centuries. 
Every  nation  believes  itself  to  have  the  best  form  of 
government,  and  considers  all  foreigners  " suspicious" 
characters. 

In  the  United  States  contempt  for  the  foreigner  is 
all  the  more  remarkable  because  so  large  a  proportion 
of  our  citizenship  is  made  up  of  men  and  women  of 
foreign  birth.  Yet  the  foreigner  is  commonly  if  good- 
naturedly  designated  as  a  "Guinea,"  a  "dago,"  a 
' '  wop, "  a  ' '  harp,  "ora"  Scandahoovian. ' '  I  remem- 
ber that  fifteen  years  ago  in  Congress  the  surest  way  to 
kill  a  measure  was  to  refer  to  its  previous  adoption 
and  successful  working  by  foreign  governments. 

In  the  Philippines  there  is  no  such  public  sentiment. 
Twenty  different  European,  Asiatic,  or  American  na- 


FILIPINO  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  FOREIGNERS     271 

tions  are  represented  there  by  their  nationals,  who 
mingle  actively  in  society,  and  engage  in  peaceful  ri- 
valry in  business.  In  Manila  alone  there  are  6731 
Americans  (outside  of  the  army  and  navy),  1955  Brit- 
ish, 635  other  Europeans,  17,800  Chinese,  and  1611 
Japanese.  There  is  much  mixture  of  blood  in  the  Phil- 
ippines, as  there  is  in  America,  but  that  has  not 
brought  about  among  the  Filipinos,  as  it  has  among 
our  own  people,  any  feeling  of  race  antagonism.  The 
mixture  of  Filipino  with  Chinese  or  Spanish  blood,  for 
example,  has  produced  a  very  efficient  and  admirable 
type  of  citizen.  There  is  no  opposition  to  foreigners 
as  such  in  the  Philippines ;  whatever  anti-national  feel- 
ing may  be  observed  is  traceable  to  specific  grievances 
or  occurrences. 

The  rise  of  modern  nationalities  really  dates  from 
the  fifteenth  century;  a  man  to-day  is  no  longer  a  cit- 
izen of  the  world,  but  a  national  of  some  country 
whose  flag  often  means  more  to  him  than  his  life  or 
his  property,  especially  so  in  moments  of  wide-spread 
popular  excitement.  The  spirit  of  nationality,  growing 
during  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries,  finally 
led  to  a  collision  in  the  World  War  which  theatened  the 
security  of  all.  Unregulated  or  unrestrained  feelings 
of  nationalism  have  caused  the  people  of  almost  every 
modern  nation  to  look  with  suspicion  and  distrust  upon 
those  of  every  other.  This  result  was  perhaps  unex- 
pected or  unforeseen  by  those  great  leaders  to  whom 
the  peoples  of  Europe  owe  their  present  forms  of 
national  existence.  From  that  point  of  view,  Bismarck 
appears  to  have  been  the  wisest  of  them  all. 

The  world  to-day  begins  to  realize  the  dangerous 
excess  to  which  the  sentiment  of  nationalism  has  car- 


272     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

ried  it,  and  is  earnestly  striving  to  find  a  formula  by 
which  it  may  be  regulated.  This  effort  is  hampered 
by  the  apparent  failure  of  the  Christian  Church  to 
teach  or  enforce  Christian  principles  in  public  affairs, 
and  by  the  intense  passion  with  which  the  proponents 
of  internationalism  are  attacked  by  the  people  of 
their  respective  countries.  Unless  some  working  basis 
for  the  international  relations  of  the  world  can  be 
found,  the  outlook  for  the  future  is  gloomy  indeed. 

In  inspiring  in  the  Philippines  a  spirit  of  nationality, 
a  genuine  effort  has  been  made  by  those  Americans 
concerned,  officials  and  missionaries,  to  instil  senti- 
ments of  international  comity  and  good-will.  The  offi- 
cial severity  of  the  treatment  accorded  Germans  in  the 
Philippines  during  the  war,  has,  it  is  hoped,  not 
definitely  destroyed  the  effects  of  such  teaching.  It  is 
to  be  feared,  however,  that  the  propaganda  of  hate 
against  the  Germans  by  the  various  allied  and  asso- 
ciated powers  has  left  behind  a  bad  flavor  in  the  mouth. 
At  most,  it  may  be  stated  that  the  Filipinos  did  not 
then  hate  individual  Germans,  and  occasionally  pro- 
tested in  a  perfectly  proper  manner  against  their  de- 
portation and  internment.  Germans  who  had  lived  in 
the  Philippines  for  years,  and  had  assisted  in  a  spirit 
of  personal  friendship  and  consideration  in  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  country,  were  among  the  most  popular  of 
the  foreigners. 

Americans,  of  course,  are  not  foreigners  in  the  Phil- 
ippines, but  are  recognized  as  those  in  whom  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  country  is  temporarily  placed.  There 
is  a  citizenship  law  in  the  Philippines  permitting  all 
those  qualified  under  the  laws  of  the  United  States  to 
acquire  citizenship  to  become  citizens  of  the  Philip- 


O  "S 

§  g> 


S  * 


FILIPINO  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  FOREIGNERS    273 

pines;  no  Americans  have  as  yet  taken  advantage  of 
it;  all  are  still  "citizens  of  the  United  States  resident 
in  the  Philippines. ' '  The  Filipino  is  not  an  American 
citizen,  though  he  is  somewhat  confused  by  American 
court  decisions  and  American  administrative  rulings 
as  to  whether  he  is  at  all  times  entitled  to  the  benefits 
of  American  laws.  Large  and  increasing  numbers  of 
Filipinos  are  going  to  the  United  States  each  year  to 
seek  a  university  degree,  or  to  find  work.  An  ideal  of 
our  country  as  the  land  of  wonders  and  of  gold  is  wide- 
spread among  the  young  men  and  women.  All  laws 
affecting  the  Philippines,  whether  passed  by  Congress 
or  by  the  local  Legislature,  maintain  scrupulously  the 
equal  rights  of  Americans  and  Filipinos  therein,  ex- 
cept only  the  Civil  Service  law,  adopted  in  accordance 
with  President  McKinley's  dictum,  giving  the  Filipino 
preference  wherever  possible  in  the  matter  of  holding 
office  in  the  islands. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  Filipinos  regard  the  Amer- 
icans with  liking  and  respect;  they  make  allowances 
for  differences  in  political  opinion,  and  readily  coop- 
erate with  Americans  in  the  Government  and  in  busi- 
ness. They  are  convinced,  at  present  at  least,  of  the 
good  faith  and  generosity  of  our  country  toward  them. 
Many  Americans  in  the  Philippines  have  been  men  of 
unusual  ability,  and  numbers  of  them  have  been  en- 
tirely unselfish  and  genuinely  altruistic  in  their  Phil- 
ippine service. 

Most  American  men  and  a  few  American  women 
have  a  genuine  liking  for  the  Filipinos;  they  enjoy 
Filipino  social  affairs  and  dance  with  the  Filipinos  at 
their  bailes.  In  the  provinces  the  relations  between 
the  two  races  are  even  better  than  in  Manila;  ex- 


274     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

tremely  few  instances  of  quarrels  based  on  racial  dif- 
ferences have  occurred  there  in  recent  years.  In  fact, 
the  Americans  in  the  Philippines,  despite  frequent 
grumblings,  really  love  the  country,  and  lead  a  uni- 
formly agreeable  existence.  When  home  on  leave  they 
are  usually  longing  at  heart  for  the  day  of  return  to 
the  islands. 

Of  French,  Dutch,  Belgians,  Italians,  and  Danes 
there  are  so  few  in  the  archipelago  that  there  is 
no  opportunity  for  estimating  how  they  stand  with 
the  Filipinos;  they  are  almost  always  courteous  and 
agreeable,  and  would  be  well  liked  in  any  community. 

Spaniards  stand  in  a  peculiar  relation,  owing  to  their 
long  historical  connection  with  the  islands;  they  are 
still  inclined  to  look  down  upon  the  humbler  classes, 
though  making  warm  friendships  with  the  cultivated 
Filipinos.  Personal  and  intellectual  sympathy  is 
strong  between  individuals  of  the  two  races,  and  the 
Casa  Espanol,  or  Spanish  Club,  is  always  crowded  with 
Filipinos  at  all  times  of  festivity;  the  Spaniards  turn 
out  in  large  numbers  at  the  fiestas  of  the  leading  Fil- 
ipino social  club,  the  Tiro  al  Blanco.  In  business  the 
two  races  are  closely  associated,  and  throughout  the 
provinces  there  are  many  Spaniards  living  on  terms 
of  intimacy  and  good-will  with  their  neighbors.  With 
the  passage  of  time,  as  has  already  happened  in  the 
South  American  countries,  past  grievances  will  be 
forgotten  and  pride  in  the  Spanish  traditions  will  ani- 
mate the  Filipino.  It  is  too  soon,  however,  for  all  to 
have  been  forgiven;  all  middle-aged  men  of  to-day 
lived  through  the  last  ten  years  of  Spanish  rule,  and 
remember  the  excesses  of  the  bloody  Archbishop 
Nozaleda.     The  only  occasion  upon  which  I  saw  the 


FILIPINO  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  FOREIGNERS     275 

old  spirit  manifested  was  when,  in  1921,  a  group  of 
Spanish  business  men  was  formed  to  take  over  the 
directorate  of  the  failing  Spanish  Bank  from  the 
church  and  the  Filipinos ;  there  was  such  an  outburst 
of  wrath  and  resentment  on  the  part  of  the  Filipinos 
concerned  that  the  Spaniards  absolutely  refused  to 
serve  on  the  directorate.  Spanish  culture,  Spanish 
literature,  and  the  social  graces  of  old  Spain  are,  how- 
ever, gradually  healing  the  ancient  sore;  real  friend- 
ship will  not  be  many  years  in  coming. 

The  British  form  a  large  and  very  important  colony, 
influential  both  in  business  and  in  society;  they  have 
not  of  recent  years  openly  displayed  the  customary 
manner  of  the  English  toward  the  native  races  in  other 
colonies;  they  refrain  most  scrupulously  from  taking 
any  part  in  the  political  movements  of  the  day.  Indi- 
viduals among  them  have  shown  unusual  ability  in 
''getting  along"  with  the  Filipinos;  have  been  con- 
siderate, generous,  and  kindly  toward  them.  Never- 
theless, there  is  a  wide  gulf  between  the  two  races, 
which  is  only  gradually  being  bridged.  The  English 
have  usually  refused  to  allow  their  Filipino  "boys" 
(servants)  to  speak  English,  as  has  been  the  policy 
in  their  own  colonies;  the  denial  of  the  right  to  use 
the  same  tongue  is  the  denial  of  all  possible  social 
intercourse.  In  1917,  after  the  passage  of  the  Jones 
Act,  when  Filipino  nationalism  began  to  grow,  it  was 
noticed  at  the  first  baile  given  at  the  Tiro  al  Blanco  that 
no  English  were  invited,  though  representatives  of  all 
other  elements  in  the  community  were  present.  The 
explanation  given  was  that  no  Filipinos  were  ever 
invited  to  the  English  Club !  Surely  Clive  and  Warren 
Hastings  would  never  have  tolerated  such  discrimina- 


276     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

tion  in  India  in  their  day!  It  remained  for  Curzon 
and  the  present-day  British  "raj." 

The  Filipinos  would  like  to  show  hospitality  and  op- 
portunity to  the  British  Indians,  but  the  immigration 
laws  prevent  any  admission  of  their  far-away  kinsmen, 
except  those  of  the  merchant  and  tourist  class. 

Of  much  significance  and  direct  influence  is  the 
Chinese  community  in  the  Philippines.  American 
theory  at  home  is  distinctly  and  sentimentally  favor- 
able to  the  Chinese,  but  it  does  not  go  to  the  length 
of  admitting  them  into  our  own  country,  or  into  the 
Philippines.  To  the  Spanish,  the  Chinese  in  the  Phil- 
ippines were  a  great  political  problem.  Occasionally 
they  admitted  a  few  thousands ;  at  times  they  massa- 
cred them,  or  drove  them  out.  There  are  to-day  about 
sixty  thousand  Chinese  in  the  islands,  chiefly  engaged 
in  trade  and  foreign  commerce.  In  many  provinces 
the  "Chino"  is  the  keeper  of  the  tienda,  or  shop,  in 
every  little  village;  the  purchaser  of  the  local  crops; 
the  middleman  in  distribution,  and  the  one  money- 
lender. His  extortion  and  usury  make  him  an  object 
of  dislike  to  the  provincial  Filipino;  his  control  of 
the  rice  trade,  the  national  food  supply,  draws  upon 
him  in  times  of  want  the  ill-feeling  of  all  classes. 
Those  who  have  described  the  hatred  of  the  Jew  in 
old  Russia,  or  of  the  Armenian  in  Turkey  as  religious, 
have  entirely  missed  the  point ;  it  is  economic,  for  the 
Jews  and  Armenians  in  those  two  countries  have,  so 
far  as  permitted,  absorbed  the  economic  resources  of 
the  people.  In  the  Filipino  mind  there  is  a  dark  back- 
ground of  dislike  of  the  Chinese,  built  up  upon  genera- 
tions of  extortion.  It  is  one  of  the  strongest  passions 
in  his  heart.    The  fat  Chino  in  the  smaller  communi- 


FILIPINO  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  FOREIGNERS     277 

ties,  who  sits  day  by  day  in  the  shade  of  his  tienda, 
has  probably  secured  control  of  the  village  belle  and 
has  certainly  working  for  him  upon  petty  loans  a 
considerable  number  of  the  local  farmers  at  rates  of 
interest  of  from  eighty  per  cent,  to  one  hundred  per 
cent,  a  year.  This  state  of  affairs  has  so  frequently  in 
the  past  led  to  reprisals  that  even  to-day  whenever  an 
unusual  noise  is  heard  in  the  village  street,  the  shut- 
ters of  the  Chinese  tienda  are  the  first  to  go  up.  The 
Chinese  is  always  a  banker  or  trader,  never  a  pro- 
ducer of  anything, — except  children.  Although  some- 
times he  becomes  nominally  a  Christian,  probably  in 
order  to  marry  into  some  well-to-do  local  family,  his 
heart  is  always  in  China,  where  all  his  earnings  go, 
and  where  he  hopes  at  last  to  find  a  resting-place 
among  the  graves  of  his  ancestors. 

The  Chinese  are  wonderful  workers  in  those  coun- 
tries where  they  are  obliged  to  work;  shall  they  be 
condemned  because  in  the  Philippines  they  have  found 
it  possible  to  live  in  comparative  luxury  like  the  lilies 
of  the  field,  neither  toiling  nor  spinning?  In  China, 
they  either  work  or  else  die,  by  the  million. 

The  Chinese  residents  of  the  Philippines  constitute, 
as  they  always  have  constituted,  a  problem  for  the 
Government.  Their  type  of  civilization  is  apart  from 
the  current  of  modern  thought,  remote  from  European 
philosophies.  The  Chinese  really  looks  down  on  the 
rest  of  the  world  as  " foreign  devils."  His  own  social 
system  is  run  upon  a  disregard  of  the  beautiful  maxims 
his  learned  men  professed.  He  has  found  it  easy  to 
live  upon  the  weakness  of  his  fellow-man.  In  the  Phil- 
ippines he  is  the  organizer  and  purveyor  of  the  opium 
trade,  and  a  natural-born  gambler;  his  activity  in  the 


278     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

corruption  of  public  officials  is  notorious;  when  he 
finds  that  he  cannot  bribe  the  police  or  the  revenue 
officer,  he  is  wont  to  organize  a  skilful  campaign  for 
the  defamation  of  his  character.  He  is  the  despair  of 
the  police  courts  because  of  the  maze  of  ingenious  per- 
jury, charges,  and  counter-charges  which  he  creates. 

Would  an  independent  Philippines  admit  the  Chinese 
without  restrictions  into  the  archipelago?  A  powerful 
movement  is  now  on  foot  to  introduce  Chinese  con- 
tract agricultural  labor;  it  is  sponsored  by  those  active 
members  of  the  Agricultural  Congress  who  possess 
large  sugar  haciendas,  and  by  those  Americans  and 
foreigners  devoted  to  the  phrases  "  development  of 
the  country"  and  "economic  independence  of  the  Phil- 
ippines. ' '  There  is  a  very  strong  sentiment  in  opposi- 
tion, however,  from  the  smaller  landed  proprietors 
who  constitute  the  bulk  of  the  population,  and  on  the 
part  of  many  who  believe  contract  labor  is  a  form  of 
slavery.  The  British  in  Borneo  and  in  the  Straits 
Settlements  built  up  their  empire  upon  imported 
Chinese  labor,  but  to-day  the  Chinese  in  Singapore 
own  most  of  the  tin  mines  and  are  rapidly  acquiring 
the  rubber  plantations.  The  former  "white  lords  and 
masters"  are  now  in  increasing  numbers  working  for 
them  as  managers  or  overseers  upon  the  plantations 
and  at  the  mines.  Their  economic  competition  is  irre- 
sistible because  they  can  ' '  underlive ' '  most  of  the  other 
races. 

In  the  Philippines,  when  the  proposal  to  admit 
coolies  for  agricultural  labor  for  fixed  periods  of 
time  is  seriously  entertained,  as  it  is  at  present,  it  is 
interesting  to  speculate  whether  history  is  about  to 
repeat  itself.    The  following  quotations  are  taken  from 


FILIPINO  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  FOREIGNERS     279 

Jagor's  Travels  in  the  Philippines   (1859),  Chapter 
XXVI: 

By  1615  the  Chinese  had  again  so  increased  that  a  decree 
was  issued  limiting  them  to  six  thousand,  "  these  to  be  em- 
ployed in  the  cultivation  of  the  country";  while  at  the  same 
time  their  rapid  increase  was  taken  advantage  of  by  the 
Captain-General  for  his  own  interest,  as  he  exacted  eight 
dollars  from  each  Chinaman  for  permission  to  remain.  In 
1639  the  Chinese  population  had  risen  to  thirty  thousand, 
according  to  other  information,  to  forty  thousand,  when  they 
revolted  and  were  reduced  to  thirty  thousand. 

*  *        # 

In  1709  the  jealousy  against  the  Chinese  once  more  had 
reached  such  a  height  that  they  were  accused  of  rebellion,  and 
particularly  of  monopolizing  the  trades,  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  most  serviceable  of  the  artisans  and  such  of  them 
as  were  employed  by  the  Government,  they  were  once  again 
expelled.  Spanish  writers  praise  the  salutariness  of  these 
measures,  alleging  that  "under  the  pretence  of  agriculture, 
the  Chinese  carry  on  trade;  they  are  cunning  and  careful, 
making  money  and  sending  it  to  China,  so  that  they  defraud 
the  Philippines  annually  of  an  enormous  amount. 

*  *        * 

In  1757  the  jealousy  of  the  Spaniards  broke  out  again  in 
the  form  of  a  new  order  from  Madrid  directing  the  expulsion 
of  the  Chinese ;  and  in  1759  the  decrees  of  banishment,  which 
were  repeatedly  evaded,  were  carried  into  effect ;  but,  as  the 
private  interests  of  the  officials  did  not  happen  to  coincide 
with  those  of  the  Creole  traders,  the  consequence  was  that 
"The  Chinese  soon  streamed  back  again  in  incredible  num- 
bers," and  made  common  cause  with  the  English  upon  their 

invasion  in  1762. 

*  *        # 

A  decree,  issued  in  1804,  commanded  all  Chinese  shop- 
keepers to  leave  Manila  within  eight  days,  only  those  who 
were  married  being  allowed  to  keep  shops;  and  their  residence 
in  the  provinces  was  permitted  only  upon  the  condition  that 
they  confined  themselves  entirely  to  agriculture. 


280    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

In  1850  Captain-General  Urbiztondo  endeavored  to  intro- 
duce Chinese  colonial  farming,  and  with  this  object  promised 
a  reduction  of  the  taxes  to  all  agricultural  immigrants.  Many 
Chinese  availed  themselves  of  this  opportunity  in  order  to 
escape  the  heavy  poll-tax;  but  in  general  they  soon  betook 
themselves  to  trading  once  more. 

In  1920  the  Governor  of  East  Sumatra  told  me  in 
Medan  that  the  Dutch  Government  was  trying  to  put 
a  stop  to  the  importation  of  coolie  labor,  upon  the 
ground  that  it  was  immoral.  Whether  upon  that  higher 
basis,  or  upon  the  more  material  question  of  the  eco- 
nomic interests  of  the  islands,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
in  the  future  the  Filipinos  will  consider  well  the  con- 
sequences before  they  open  the  doors  to  Chinese  labor. 
The  present  exclusion  is  maintained  as  a  result  of 
Mr.  TafVs  arguments  before  the  committees  of  Con- 
gress. Is  it  not  an  integral  part  of  his  popular  policy 
of  "The  Philippines  for  the  Filipinos"? 

A  law  passed  at  the  1921  session  of  the  Legislature 
has  provoked  much  remonstrance  from  the  Chinese; 
although  not  in  terms  directed  at  them,  they  are  the 
class  chiefly  affected  by  its  provisions;  this  is  the  so- 
called  "bookkeeping  act"  requiring  all  persons  liable 
to  the  payment  of  internal  revenue  taxes  to  keep  their 
books  in  English,  Spanish,  or  one  of  the  local  dialects. 
The  purpose  of  the  act  is  to  facilitate  the  collection 
of  the  revenue,  since  for  many  years  past  the  books 
of  Oriental  foreign  traders,  particularly  the  Chinese, 
have  presented  an  almost  insuperable  problem  to  the 
tax  agents;  the  result  is  believed  to  have  been  great 
frauds  upon  the  revenue.  While  this  law  might  be 
defended  upon  the  ground  that  it  is  only  right  to  re- 
quire the  foreigners  resident  in  the  country  to  adapt 


FILIPINO  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  FOREIGNERS     281 

their  methods  and  practices  to  those  with  whom 
they  compete  in  business,  its  real  justification  is  the 
undoubted  need  of  protection  of  the  revenue,  and  the 
liberality  of  its  provisions  makes  it  clear  that  it  is  not 
in  any  sense  intended  as  anti-foreign. 

With  the  Japanese,  the  problem  for  the  Filipinos  is 
quite  different.  It  is  no  part  of  the  Japanese  general 
policy  that  their  citizens  shall  labor  in  the  fields  and 
workshops  of  the  tropics.  Their  idea  is  to  manage  or 
supervise  investments  in  the  lands  to  the  southward. 
There  is  no  restriction  upon  Japanese  immigration 
into  the  Philippines,  and  yet  the  total  number  of  Jap- 
anese in  the  islands  has  never  at  any  recent  time  been 
more  than  fifteen  thousand,  and  has  lately  diminished. 
Their  venture  in  developing  the  rich  hemp  lands  in 
Davao  has  been  checked  by  the  recent  Public  Land  Act. 

When  Japan  overthrew  Russia  in  1905  and  later 
dispossessed  the  Germans  from  Shan-tung,  they  were 
not  only  impelled  by  economic  reasons  to  expansion; 
they  were  establishing  themselves  in  the  hegemony  of 
Asia.  The  Pan-Oriental  idea  was  very  attractive  at 
first  to  the  inhabitants  of  Asiatic  countries  which  had 
been  subjugated  and  were  being  held  by  the  conquering 
whites.  In  a  few  years,  however,  Japanese  aggressive- 
ness alarmed  the  neighboring  races,  and  their  tactless- 
ness in  colonial  government  made  the  subject  of  a  bit- 
ter propagandum  by  the  white  colonial  powers,  dis- 
heartened the  brown  and  yellow  peoples  of  near-by 
Asia.  The  Filipinos  have  had  an  additional  reason  for 
failure  to  understand  the  Japanese  mind, — Chris- 
tianity. 

Their  attention  to  the  Japanese  question  is  aroused 
and  kept  fixed  by  the  constant  arguments  in  American 


282    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

periodicals  that  as  soon  as  they  gain  their  independ- 
ence the  Philippines  will  be  gobbled  up  by  Japan.  The 
American  Army  in  the  islands,  is,  moreover,  constantly 
reporting  discoveries  of  Japanese  " spies."  The  Fil- 
ipinos to-day  have  apparently  abandoned  altogether 
the  Pan-Oriental  ideas  of  a  decade  ago,  and  are  dis- 
tinctly nervous  about  the  " Japanese  menace."  This 
phase  of  the  question  will  be  discussed  in  a  later 
chapter.    „ 

Japan  has  been  well  represented  officially  in  the  Phil- 
ippines of  recent  years.  Consuls-General  Sugimura 
and  Kurusu  are  trained  diplomats,  well  versed  in 
international  law,  and  have  handled  their  nationals 
with  tact  and  good  judgment.  Consul-General  Kurusu 
speaks  English  perfectly,  has  a  broad,  liberal  outlook 
upon  affairs,  and  has  helped  to  allay  anti-Japanese 
feeling  based  upon  the  acquisition  of  landed  estates. 
Eecently  he  persuaded  a  Japanese  who  had  purchased 
a  large  estate  near  Montalban,  about  tweny  miles  from 
Manila,  to  sell  it  upon  reasonable  terms  to  its  Filipino 
tenants,  thus  closing  tactfully  an  "incident"  of  grow- 
ing importance.  He  has  also  negotiated  with  skill  and 
success  the  ratification  by  the  Legislature  of  the  leases 
of  large  haciendas  in  Davao  to  Japanese  planters  who 
had  made  application  for  the  lands  before  the  passage 
of  the  Public  Land  Act,  and  who  had  in  good  faith 
made  substantial  improvements  upon  the  land.  He 
remarked  to  me  that  he  could  understand  the  Filipino 
attitude  upon  the  land  problem  because  the  Japanese 
had  themselves  but  recently  gone  through  a  similar 
phase  of  suspicion  toward  all  foreigners  who  wished 
to  acquire  lands  in  the  empire.  He  found  the  Filipinos 
courteous,  just,  and  reasonable. 


FILIPINO  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  FOREIGNERS     283 

In  recent  years  Japanese  visitors  to  the  Philippines 
have  been  numerous.  They  have  come  in  committees 
of  investors,  educators,  and  government  officials.  They 
have  been  scrupulously  considerate  of  Filipino  senti- 
ment, and  have  made  themselves  popular.  Japanese 
warships  visit  Manila  from  time  to  time,  and  are  cor- 
dially received,  and  entertainments  of  the  officers  and 
crews  are  well  attended  by  the  Filipinos.  No  inci- 
dents of  an  unpleasant  nature  between  Japanese  and 
Filipinos  have  been  observed,  and  they  seem  able  to 
meet  with  genuine  mutual  respect  and  good-will,  es- 
pecially since  Filipino  alarm  over  the  "landed  inva- 
sion" of  the  Japanese  has  been  allayed.  No  race 
prejudice  or  acrimony  of  ideas  has  appeared  between 
the  two ;  the  only  cloud  upon  the  horizon  is  the  often- 
mentioned  danger  of  Japanese  military  aggression. 
Japanese  merchants  and  business  men  have  been  pru- 
dent and  scrupulous  in  their  relations  with  the  people. 
The  lectures  of  Professor  Matsunami  at  the  University 
of  the  Philippines  in  the  winter  of  1920-21  were  largely 
attended  and  cordially  appreciated.  The  foundation 
is  being  laid  for  an  excellent  understanding  between 
the  two  races. 

While  growing  from  year  to  year  in  the  spirit  of 
nationalism,  in  race  pride,  and  in  self-confidence,  the 
Filipinos  show  no  spirit  to-day  of  intensive  localism; 
no  prejudice  or  animosity  against  the  nationals  of 
other  countries,  except  the  economic  resentment  al- 
ready noted  against  the  Chinese  trader.  Men  of  all 
nations  live  among  them  and  are  hospitably  received 
by  them.  Their  leaders  are  fully  alive  to  the  danger  of 
permitting  any  substantial  grievance  to  spring  from 
their  relations  with  foreigners.     The  Filipino  is  an 


284    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

international  in  his  recognition  of  the  good  qualities 
of  other  races.  Perhaps  in  the  days  to  come,  he,  too, 
may  have  his  cause  for  national  feeling  against  some 
other  country.  May  it  never  be  against  the  United 
States. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

The  Independence  of  the  Philippines 

THERE  can  be  no  profit  in  any  further  discussion 
as  to  whether  or  not  the  Filipinos  are  to  have 
self-government ;  they  already  have  it  under  the  terms 
of  the  Jones  Act,  and  have  been  exercising  it  for  the 
past  five  years.  No  Congress,  even  under  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  most  reactionary  influences,  would  authorize 
the  taking  away  of  the  share  of  liberty  already  granted. 
There  will  be  no  turning  back  of  the  hands  of  the  clock. 

The  question  now  is  simply  that  of  independence, 
and  America  cannot  in  honor  and  good  faith  long  delay 
the  grant.  It  has  been  distinctly  and  definitely  prom- 
ised by  almost  unanimous  vote  of  Congress.  Unless 
the  Jones  Act  is  to  become  a  "scrap  of  paper, "  the 
final  step  must  soon  be  taken. 

For  the  three  years  succeeding  the  passage  of  their 
new  charter  in  the  Jones  Act,  the  Filipinos  were  com- 
paratively quiet  on  the  independence  question.  This 
was  interpreted  by  some  American  observers  to  mean 
that  the  Philippine  question  was  permanently  settled 
on  the  basis  of  autonomy  without  independence.  In 
this  they  were  in  error.  Once  planted,  the  seed  of 
liberty  will  grow  and  thrive ;  it  will  not  languish  and 
die  even  in  an  atmosphere  of  luxury  and  ease ;  nor  can 
it  be  destroyed  by  force  or  fraud. 

Little  was  heard  during  those  three  years  about 
independence,  for  the  most  obvious  reason:  first,  be- 

285 


286     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

cause  the  Filipinos  were  fully  occupied  in  setting  up 
the  stable  government  of  their  own  required  by  the 
Jones  Act ;  secondly,  because  in  the  cyclone  of  a  world 
war  it  was  a  most  inopportune  time  to  launch  a  new 
and  comparatively  weak  nation;  and  thirdly,  because 
as  if  by  common  consent  the  Filipino  people  decided  not 
to  press  their  own  affairs  and  questions  upon  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  during  the  years  of  our 
great  anxiety  and  effort  in  the  war. 

The  moment  that  news  came  to  Manila  of  the  sign- 
ing of  the  Armistice,  the  Filipino  leaders  gathered  to- 
gether to  plan  the  next  move  in  the  independence  cam- 
paign. They  decided  to  send  to  America  at  once  a 
mission  of  their  leading  men  to  lay  their  case  before 
President  Wilson.  They  were  informed  from  Wash- 
ington that  the  President  would  not  be  there  to  re- 
ceive them  and  that  there  was  no  need  to  send  the 
mission  because  in  any  event  their  interests  were  safe 
in  his  hands.  They  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course 
that  the  League  of  Nations  would  soon  be  a  vital  real- 
ity, and  that  the  Philippine  Eepublic  would  then  take 
its  place  as  a  member  of  the  league, — the  newest  if  not 
the  smallest  member  of  the  body  which  was  thereafter 
forevermore  to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy. 
This  shows  how  permeated  they  were  with  the  war- 
time propaganda.  If  the  other  distant  populations 
of  the  earth  were  equally  literal  in  their  reliance  upon 
the  promises  of  the  allied  and  associated  govenments, 
it  may  explain  in  part  the  profound  disappointment 
and  bitterness  of  large  portions  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  world  to-day. 

It  was  decided,  however,  to  send  the  mission  to  the 
United  States,  despite  the  absence  of  the  President. 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES    287 

The  leaders  of  the  two  political  parties,  many  members 
of  the  Legislature,  and  prominent  men  in  commercial 
life  made  up  its  membership.  They  were  received  in 
Washington  by  Secretary  Baker,  who  in  an  eloquent 
address  referred  to  the  almost  complete  autonomy 
they  now  enjoyed,  and  said  that  their  connection  with 
the  United  States  was  tenuous,  the  governor-general 
constituting  its  only  link.  He  also  encouraged  their 
hopes  of  independence.  They  were  then  given  a  hear- 
ing by  a  joint  committee  of  the  two  houses  of  Congress, 
presided  over  alternately  by  Senator  Harding  for  the 
Senate  and  Eepresentative  Towner  for  the  House. 
The  members  of  the  commission  there  made  their  plea 
for  independence,  and  were  received  and  treated  with 
great  courtesy  and  consideration.  From  the  attitude  of 
the  members  of  the  joint  committee — an  attitude  of 
polite  attention,  but  of  little  deep  interest — and  from 
the  absence  of  any  controversial  questioning  of  the 
Filipino  representatives,  they  came  shrewdly  to  the 
conclusion  that  nothing  would  be  done  for  them  by  that 
Congress.  As  governor-general  I  attended  the  hear- 
ing, and  joined  in  the  recommendation  for  indepen- 
dence, stating  before  the  joint  committee  upon  my  offi- 
cial responsibility  that  the  stable  government  already 
existed  in  the  Philippines  which  was  demanded  by  the 
Jones  Act  as  the  prerequisite  for  independence. 

At  about  the  same  time  I  made  two  requests  of 
Secretary  Baker:  first,  that  Filipino  delegates  might 
be  sent  to  the  Peace  Conference  as  was  being  done  in 
the  case  of  India;  and  secondly,  that  my  resignation 
be  accepted  if  a  Filipino  could  be  appointed  governor- 
general.     Both  requests  were  denied. 

It  was  not  explained  to  me  why  the  administration 


288     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

was  reluctant  to  have  the  Independence  Commission 
come  to  Washington  while  the  Peace  Conference  was 
in  session,  nor  why  Filipino  delegates  were  not  per- 
mitted to  be  present  in  Paris.  It  may  be  surmised 
that  the  administration  felt  embarrassed  by  the  Philip- 
pine situation  in  advancing  the  fourteen  points  of 
President  Wilson ;  in  fact,  the  President  in  his  address 
to  the  Senate  upon  his  return  from  Paris  stated  that 
our  possession  of  these  far-away  islands  had  created 
suspicion  in  the  chancelleries  of  Europe;  it  was  evi- 
dently desirable  to  keep  the  Philippine  question  in  the 
background.  It  would  have  been  wiser  to  present  the 
Philippine  situation  before  the  gathering  of  nations, 
for  our  representatives  at  the  Peace  Conference  could 
have  stood  frankly  upon  that  issue,  owing  to  the 
measure  of  self-determination  granted  three  years 
previously  by  the  Jones  Act.  The  islands  were  not, 
at  that  time  at  least,  a  skeleton  in  the  cupboard  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  unwise  to  keep  the  curtain 
drawn :  the  policy  of  the  United  States  in  the  islands, 
if  openly  discussed  at  Paris,  would  have  helped,  not 
hindered,  President  Wilson  in  his  struggle  with  im- 
perialism. At  all  events,  he  himself  had  never  wavered 
in  his  faith  in  Philippine  independence;  he  probably 
felt  sure  of  the  League  of  Nations  as  the  solution  of  the 
problem.  Finally,  in  his  last  message  to  Congress,  in 
December,  1920,  he  recommended  as  follows: 

Allow  me  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  people 
of  the  Philippine  Islands  have  succeeded  in  maintaining  a 
stable  government  since  the  last  action  of  the  Congress  in 
their  behalf  and  have  thus  fulfilled  the  condition  set  by  the 
Congress,  as  precedent  to  the  consideration  of  granting  inde- 
pendence to  the  Islands.  I  respectfully  submit  that  this 
condition  precedent  having  been  fulfilled,  it  is  now  our  liberty 


WILLIAM  JENNINGS  BRYAN  AND  FRANCIS  BURTON- 
HARRISON 
Seattle,  August  1,  1919 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES    289 

and  our  duty  to  keep  our  promise  to  the  people  of  those  Islands 
by  granting  them  the  independence  which  they  so  honorably 
covet. 

In  response  nothing  was  done  by  Congress.  The 
Kepublicans  were  already  in  control  of  both  branches 
of  the  national  Legislature ;  they  had  elected  as  Presi- 
dent the  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  the 
Philippines;  they  naturally  preferred  to  wait  until 
President  Harding  was  inaugurated  before  deciding 
upon  so  important  a  question  as  that  of  the  Philippines. 

It  was  plainly  evident,  however,  in  the  years  im- 
mediately following  the  Armistice  that  although  the 
people  of  the  United  States  were  still  well  disposed 
toward  the  Filipinos,  they  were  not  inclined  to  take 
action  at  the  moment  upon  Philippine  independence. 
The  war  had  shaken  the  faith  and  confidence  of  all 
people  in  the  security  of  the  modern  world  system. 
The  effect  of  the  war  upon  our  own  people  was  to 
strengthen  the  centralization  of  powers  in  the  Govern- 
ment, to  tighten  up  the  bonds  of  national  sentiment 
and  thus  cling  more  closely  to  all  our  resources  and 
possessions.  For  the  time  being,  liberalism  was  as 
dead  as  a  door-nail  in  the  United  States;  everybody 
had  been  obliged  by  officers  of  the  law  to  think  along 
the  same  lines  in  support  of  the  Government;  under 
the  Espionage  Act  a  determined  effort  was  being  made 
to  crush  out  radicalism  with  the  raiding-ax  and  the 
" third  degree."  Imperialism  was  in  the  air;  the 
United  States  had  shown  to  herself  as  well  as  to  the 
rest  of  the  world,  her  surprising  energy  and  military 
power.  The  bulk  of  our  citizen  army  came  back  from 
France  with  an  added  degree  of  aggressive  American- 
ism, and  a  similar  distrust  of  foreigners,  of  their 


290    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

good  faith  and  purposes.    The  Filipinos  saw  that  they 
must  wait. 

The  net  accomplishment  of  the  Independence  Com- 
mission to  the  United  States  was  that  they  had  put 
their  case  once  again,  without  party  division,  and  with- 
out rancor,  before  Congress.  They  had  created,  more- 
over, in  cities  such  as  Washington,  New  York,  and 
San  Francisco — where  they  were  most  hospitably  re- 
ceived and  entertained — an  atmosphere  favorable  to 
their  people.  The  younger  men,  especially  such  as 
Camilo  Osias,  Assistant  Director  of  Education,  Con- 
rado  Benitez,  Jorge  Bocobo,  and  Jose  Santos  had  en- 
joyed a  real  personal  triumph.  It  was  evident  that  the 
Americans  at  home  liked  the  Filipinos  when  they  had 
occasion  to  know  them  in  person.  The  members  of  the 
party  also  gained  the  advantage  of  a  closer  knowledge 
of  our  country  and  its  institutions.  The  impressive 
feature  of  the  mission  was  the  entire  lack  of  all  com- 
plaints or  criticisms  against  the  United  States  on  the 
part  of  all  its  members.  They  asked  for  freedom 
simply  because  they  longed  to  be  free, — not  because  of 
any  ill-feeling  toward  the  United  States.  They 
showed  no  lack  of  appreciation  of  what  had  already 
been  done  for  them  by  our  country.  On  the  contrary, 
they  were  full  of  expressions  of  gratitude  for  the  sub- 
stantial autonomy  granted  them,  and  for  the  unselfish 
attitude  of  our  country  toward  them.  Surely,  this  is  a 
unique  situation  in  history,  and  reflects  the  utmost 
credit  upon  the  United  States  and  upon  the  Filipinos 
alike, — upon  the  latter  because,  with  all  their  present 
advantage,  they  still  demand  their  freedom.  Every- 
where it  went,  the  commission  was  listened  to  with 
respect  and  toleration. 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES    291 

It  must  have  been  apparent  to  all  its  members,  how- 
ever, that  this  was  but  the  lull  before  the  coming  strug- 
gle. They  knew  that  sooner  or  later  they  would  be 
obliged  to  make  a  vigorous  campaign  to  gain  a  serious 
hearing  for  their  claim  of  final  liberty.  The  first  step 
was  the  founding  of  a  publicity  department  in  "Wash- 
ington. They  had  found  that  the  Americans  at  home, 
with  comparatively  few  exceptions,  know  almost  noth- 
ing about  the  Philippines.  They  had  through  years  of 
experience  learned  the  difficulty  of  getting  their  case 
before  the  American  public,  of  breaking  through  the 
ring  of  misrepresentation  with  which  they  were  sur- 
rounded by  their  opponents;  they  also  had  reason  to 
believe  that  the  opposition  was  again  organizing,  and 
that  it  contained  men  of  great  wealth  and  of  influence 
in  the  newspapers,  and  that  insidious  propaganda 
against  them  would  soon  assail  once  more  the  public 
eye  and  ear. 

The  Philippine  Publicity  Bureau  is  under  the  super- 
vision of  Resident  Commissioners  de  Veyra  and  Ga- 
baldon  in  Washington ;  it  is  managed  by  Jose  P.  Melen- 
cio,  with  the  occasional  assistance  of  Professor  Maximo 
M.  Kalaw.  They  constantly  advocate  independence,  by 
articles  for  the  press  and  by  public  addresses;  the 
speech  of  Mr.  Melencio  before  the  Platform  Committee 
of  the  Democratic  National  Convention  at  San  Fran- 
cisco last  year  was  pronounced  by  Mr.  Bryan  to  be  the 
very  best  address  made  before  the  convention.  The 
hundreds  of  Filipino  students  attending  the  various 
universities  of  the  United  States  are  valuable  auxil- 
iaries in  the  independence  campaign.  In  fine,  the 
Filipinos  do  not  intend  to  let  the  question  of  their 
national  existence  be  decided  against  them  by  default. 


292     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

The  stage  is  thus  set  for  a  determined  struggle;  let 
us  hope  that  it  may  be  concluded  in  peace. 

Ever  since  Mr.  Taft  learned  with  pain  and  surprise 
that  the  Filipinos  were  not  content  with  kind  and  sooth- 
ing words  and  just  laws,  but  were  agitating  for  inde- 
pendence; ever  since  Mr.  Quezon  told  Congress  that 
they  were  not  satisfied  to  remain  as  a  bird  in  a  gilded 
cage,  an  attempt  has  been  made  by  those  who  opposed 
further  liberties  for  the  Filipinos  to  discredit  their 
campaign  by  asserting  that  the  Filipinos  do  not  want 
independence;  in  that  respect  they  would  have  us  be- 
lieve that  the  Filipinos  differ  from  all  other  races  of 
men.  This  campaign,  they  say,  is  all  the  work  of  hot- 
heads, of  selfish  politicians,  of  irresponsible  dema- 
gogues. Visitors  to  Manila  give  out  statements  that 
they  have  been  approached  confidentially  by  Filipinos 
who  begged  them  not  to  grant  independence;  names 
are  never  given,  but  mysterious  hints  are  thrown  out 
that  these  patriotic  Filipinos  are  afraid  to  have  their 
names  known  to  the  politicians.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  such  persons  exist,  and  that  they  are  either  kept  in 
a  dark  closet  by  their  patrons  or  produced  for  secret 
interviews  with  distinguished  visitors,  or  else  that 
there  are  prominent  and  wealthy  men  who  are  actually 
afraid  of  independence.  In  this  world  those  who  have 
often  live  in  dread  of  those  who  have  not.  It  would 
be  unreasonable  to  demand  that  every  one  of  the  eleven 
million  inhabitants  of  the  islands  should  be  of  the  same 
opinion;  it  is  not  the  democratic  method  of  deciding 
public  questions ;  in  a  democracy  the  vote  of  the  major- 
ity decides;  on  a  constitutional  question  a  two-thirds 
vote  in  the  United  States  Congress  is  required.  Why 
demand  that  the  Filipinos  should  be  unanimous  ?    The 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES     293 

" consent  of  the  governed"  never  meant  the  consent  of 
every  individual  concerned ;  many  are  given  no  vote  and 
no  voice ;  such  a  requirement  is  an  absurdity.  Were  the 
Americans  unanimous  at  the  time  of  their  Declaration 
of  Independence  I  Were  they  not  led  by  men  like  Sam- 
uel Adams  and  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  were  known  to 
England  to  be  "demagogues"  and  "hotheaded"  poli- 
ticians? As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  very  large  proportion 
of  the  American  colonists  were  opposed  to  separation 
from  England,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  Tories  left  the 
country  upon  the  formation  of  the  new  union.  Those 
who  remained  were  neither  justly  nor  generously 
treated  by  the  Americans  of  that  day.  There  is  no  such 
division  of  opinion  in  the  Philippines;  the  sentiment 
there  is  as  nearly  unanimous  in  favor  of  independence 
as  it  is  possible  for  any  public  question  to  be  in  any 
country. 

There  is  more  division  of  opinion  on  the  form  of 
independence  desired ;  the  subject  has  not  until  within 
the  past  few  months  been  given  much  public  debate  in 
the  Philippines.  When  asked  by  committees  of  Con- 
gress this  very  question,  the  leading  Filipinos  have  al- 
ways replied:  "The  most  independence  we  can  getl^ 
They  were  too  skilful  to  allow  their  cause  to  be  jeopar- 
dized by  such  manoeuvers ;  should  they  permit  the  main 
issue  to  be  divided,  their  opponents  might  overcome 
them  in  detail ;  they  might  be  forced  into  an  untenable 
position  if  a  request  were  made  for  a  protectorate, 
which  Congress  might  well  deny.  When  I  recom- 
mended upon  my  own  responsibility  before  the  joint 
committee  in  Congress  in  1919  that  independence  be 
granted,  I  suggested  that  the  "Piatt  Amendment,"  as 
it  was  known  in  the  grant  of  Cuban  independence  by 


294     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  United  States,  might  be  imposed  upon  the  Philip- 
pines. This  permits  our  country  to  intervene  in  Cuba 
under  certain  circumstances  without  intervention  being 
considered  an  act  of  war,  a  right  which  we  have  already 
once  exercised.  My  purpose  was  to  secure  for  the  new 
republic  of  the  Orient  a  form  of  protection  from  out- 
side aggression  during  the  early  years  of  its  inde- 
pendent existence  at  least.  Because  of  this  suggestion 
I  lost  the  support  of  the  Anti-Imperialist  League,  a 
support  which  up  to  that  time  had  been  generous  and 
gratifying.  It  seems  that  the  exercise  of  supervision 
under  the  Piatt  Amendment  had  proved  aggravating 
and  offensive  to  the  Cubans.  Possibly  the  Anti-Im- 
perialist League  took  a  more  long-reaching  view  of  the 
matter  than  I  did  myself.  It  may  be  that  for  the  sake 
of  the  Filipinos  as  well  as  our  own  country  absolute 
independence  would  be  the  best  course.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  if  the  issue  were  presented  to  the  Fili- 
pinos, while  many  would  wish  for  some  kind  of  protec- 
torate at  least  for  the  next  few  years,  if  that  is  found 
to  be  impossible,  the  vote  for  complete  and  absolute 
independence  would  be  nearly  unanimous. 

The  responsibility  for  the  solution  of  this  problem 
rests  with  Congress,  a  body  which  keeps  alive  the  best 
traditions  of  Americanism.  The  problem  must  be 
faced  and  settled  soon.  It  would  be  a  matter  of  pride 
and  satisfaction  to  all  Americans  to  have  discharged 
this  duty  with  honor  and  without  thought  of  self.  It 
would  soothe  the  national  conscience,  which  was  sadly- 
disturbed  by  our  venture  in  imperialism.  It  would 
secure  our  reputation  for  the  keeping  of  the  good  faith 
of  our  country;  it  would  make  good  the  spoken  word. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Philippine  problem  is 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES    295 

much  longer  left  unsettled  by  Congress,  those  sus- 
picions of  our  intentions,  those  doubts  of  our  good 
faith,  those  insinuations  as  to  our  real  purposes  which 
President  Wilson  encountered  in  the  chancelleries  of 
Europe,  would  have  full  sway.  We  cannot  afford  to 
disregard  the  public  opinion  of  the  world,  especially  in 
the  matter  of  keeping  our  word.  If  we  eat  of  sour 
grapes  our  grandchildren's  teeth  will  assuredly  be  set 
on  edge.  The  indefinite  retention  of  the  Philippines 
will  signify  to  the  other  countries  that  we  have  behind 
the  screen  hypocritical  counsels  and  double-dealing 
policies.  They  will  measure  us  in  the  corridors  of  the 
European  foreign  offices  by  their  own  standards. 
Then,  at  last,  we  shall  be  obliged  to  gird  up  our  loins 
and  prepare  for  battle.  The  challenge  to  the  other 
powers  will  be  aggressive  and  unmistakable.  Are  we 
prepared  to  pay  the  price? 

As  for  the  Filipinos,  they  will,  naturally  enough,  be 
embittered  and  disillusioned  by  our  promises  and  pro- 
fessions. "Ah,  but — "  say  the  imperialists,  those 
promises  were  not  literally  intended,  and  were  made 
without  consulting  the  American  people.  Nevertheless, 
these  promises  were  set  forth  in  the  preamble  of  the 
Jones  Act  by  nearly  unanimous  vote  of  Congress.  In- 
definite postponement,  said  Messrs.  Quezon  and  Os- 
mena  in  a  memorandum  on  November  19, 1918,  "would 
be  equivalent  to  frustrating  the  nearest  and  most  vital 
hopes  of  the  people,  to  reopening  in  their  trusting 
minds  the  grave  doubts  and  dark  pessimism  of  years 
gone  by;  doubts  and  pessimism  that  we  only  by  the 
most  zealous  perseverance  and  faith  have  succeeded  in 
dissipating."  Disillusionment  in  the  Philippines  may, 
it  is  true,  be  crushed  by  the  military  force  of  the 


296     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

United  States,  but  would  still  be  known  throughout 
the  countries  of  the  world.  The  national  consciousness 
of  the  Filipinos  has  been  deliberately  aroused  by  the 
United  States.  The  race  pride  is  now  involved.  "While 
they  are  at  present  substantially  unarmed,  is  armament 
by  them  an  impossibility?  Has  the  United  States  so 
many  friends  among  the  other  powers  that  we  can 
count  on  all  of  them  to  refrain  from  secret  or  even  open 
assistance  to  the  Filipinos?  It  is  as  certain  as  any 
human  prophecy  can  be  that  active  insurrection  in  the 
Philippines  would  result  from  continued  disregard  of 
their  aspirations.  They  could  be  easily  led  into  further 
temporary  acquiescence  with  the  status  quo;  they 
could  be  convinced  by  the  United  States  Government 
that,  at  any  given  moment,  the  problems  of  the  Pacific 
were  so  complicated  and  dangerous  that  a  brief  pro- 
longation of  American  rule  was  to  their  distinct  ad- 
vantage. But  a  term  must  be  set  by  Congress  to  such  a 
situation.  Once  the  Filipinos  become  certain  that  we 
are  playing  with  their  aspirations,  revolt  will  come.  A 
second  Philippine  insurrection  against  the  United 
States  would  be  a  lasting  stain  upon  our  escutcheon. 
If  it  were  caused  by  a  repudiation  of  our  promises  and 
inspired  by  selfish  purposes,  it  would  be  a  national  dis- 
grace. However  far  we  might  be  able  by  chicanery  and 
propaganda  to  deceive  ourselves  as  to  our  own  pur- 
poses, we  could  never  convince  the  Filipinos,  nor,  for 
that  matter,  the  rest  of  the  world,  of  our  good  inten- 
tions. 

The  opposition  among  Americans  to  independence 
of  the  Philippines,  aside  from  those  who  really  desire 
to  have  the  United  States  embark  upon  a  course  of 
empire,  is  centered  chiefly  in  the  army,  various  church 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES     297 

organizations,  and  certain  classes  of  business  men  and 
investors. 

The  missionaries  of  the  Methodist  and  Presbyterian 
churches  in  the  islands  have  kept  entirely  free  from 
politics  and  have  proved  uniformly  helpful  to  each  suc- 
cessive Philippine  administration.  They  must  be  re- 
membered by  all  officials,  as  well  as  by  the  many 
thousands  of  Filipinos  to  whom  they  have  ministered 
both  medically  and  spiritually,  with  the  utmost  grati- 
tude. The  Catholic  Church  is,  at  the  present  time, 
sympathetic  to  the  aspirations  of  the  Filipinos,  al- 
though five  years  ago,  as  we  have  seen,  it  defeated 
Philippine  independence  in  Washington.  The  Pro- 
testant Episcopal  Church,  however,  arrayed  as  it  al- 
most always  has  been  in  history  on  the  side  of  wealth 
and  power,  exerts  a  weak  but  perceptible  influence 
against  the  idea  of  present  independence ;  the  Church 
of  England,  whence  it  sprang,  adopted  generally  the 
same  attitude  in  the  American  colonies.  Sydney  G. 
Fisher  in  "The  Quaker  Colonies"  (page  38),  de- 
scribes the  situation  in  Pennsylvania : 

During  Perm's  life-time  the  Churchmen  were  naturally  op- 
posed to  the  whole  government,  both  executive  and  legislature. 
They  were  constantly  sending  home  to  England  all  sorts  of 
reports  and  information  calculated  to  show  that  the  Quakers 
were  unfit  to  rule  a  province,  that  Penn  should  be  deprived 
of  his  charter,  and  that  Pennsylvania  should  be  put  under  the 
direct  rule  of  the  King.  They  had  delightful  schemes  for 
making  it  a  strong  Church  of  England  colony  like  Virginia. 

Outside  of  politics,  the  excellent  work  of  American 
missionaries  of  all  denominations  in  the  islands  should 
be  better  known  and  more  appreciated  at  home.  With- 
out entering  into  a  discussion  of  the  merits  of  the 


298     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

claims  of  the  different  denominations,  all  must  unite  in 
commendation  of  the  work  of  the  medical  missions  and 
of  the  various  church  schools,  supplying  gaps  which 
the  public  revenue  has  not  yet  been  able  to  fill. 

The  American  business  man  in  the  Orient  is  gen- 
erally opposed  to  independence  of  the  Philippines.  The 
British  men  of  business  along  the  coast  cities  of  China 
and  Japan  set  the  fashion  for  political  thinking  among 
the  Americans;  their  banking  power  and  social  pres- 
tige impress  Americans  very  deeply  with  the  value  of 
imperialism.  The  steady  if  almost  imperceptible 
growth  of  the  present  attitude  of  the  white  man 
toward  "natives"  in  the  Orient  is  largely  the  work  of 
the  financial  investors  and  commercial  classes  of  Great 
Britain;  the  American  coming  later  in  the  field  has 
accepted  his  stock  of  ideas  on  the  subject  and  has  hoped 
to  emulate  his  success.  There  exists,  however,  a  con- 
fusion in  the  mind  of  the  ordinary  man  of  commerce 
on  the  subject.  It  is  not  necessary  to  own  or  to  domi- 
nate a  country  in  order  to  trade  with  it;  in  fact,  the 
greater  the  good-will,  the  greater  should  be  the  com- 
mercial intercourse.  Sovereignty,  with  all  its  hazards 
and  responsibility,  is  unnecessary  for  trade.  For  ex- 
ample, the  British  for  years  virtually  dominated  the 
foreign  trade  of  the  Philippines  through  their  banking 
and  shipping  resources,  without  owning  a  foot  of  the 
territory.  What  the  commercial  man  needs  is  reason- 
able domestic  peace  and  order,  an  even  chance  in 
business,  and  good-will  on  the  part  of  the  people  of 
the  country.  An  American  sugar  magnate  said  to  me 
in  New  York  recently : 

1  *  I  would  rather  have  a  free  Cuba  than  hold  it  as  an 
American  colony ;  it  means  more  to  us  men  of  business 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES     299 

to  have  a  contented  population  down  there  than  it 
would  to  have  it  held  by  force  by  the  United  States." 

The  case  is  different,  however,  with  capital  invest- 
ments in  a  far  distant  or  weak  country, — railways, 
irrigation  works,  aqueducts,  water-power  plants, 
street  railways,  and  so  forth.  The  investor  at  home 
must  have  his  eight  per  cent,  interest ;  internal  public 
order  is  of  the  very  first  consideration  to  the  pro- 
moters of  such  enterprises;  they  are  safe,  so  they 
believe,  only  if  their  armies  are  at  hand  to  guard  the 
money  they  have  hazarded.  Gold,  oil,  diamonds,  and 
railways  have  usually  been  the  cause  of  the  downfall 
of  numerous  small  or  weak  countries  formerly  in- 
dependent and  living  under  their  own  flag.  To  soothe 
the  conscience  of  the  public  at  home,  the  investor 
usually  prepares  the  way  with  propaganda  as  to  the 
faults  or  weaknesses  of  the  "natives."  Then  a  war- 
ship is  sent.  Little  by  little,  territorial  seizures  follow. 
To  appease  home  sentiment  stories  of  native  cruelty 
or  inefficiency  are  glaringly  circulated.  Kipling  owes 
his  sudden  fame  and  popularity  largely  to  his  having 
coined  a  phrase  which  brought  unction  to  their  souls. 
"The  White  Man's  Burden"  is  to-day  their  formula. 
The  native  inhabitants,  however,  generally  believe  that 
the  "White  Man's  Burden"  is  the  "burden  of  his 
cash. ' ' 

Lord  Bryce  has  well  said  that  "the  spread  of 
universal  primary  education"  has  "substituted  read- 
ing for  thinking."  The  newspaper  press  to-day  re- 
lieves the  ordinary  man  from  the  effort  of  doing  his 
own  thinking.  The  home  public  accepts  at  par  value 
all  the  reasons  given  for  territorial  aggrandizement. 


300     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

One  can  usually  foresee  from  following  the  prior  cam- 
paign in  the  press  of  European  countries,  the  seizure 
of  any  one  of  the  defenseless  portions  of  the  earth. 
The  natives  have  no  voice  whatever  in  the  clamor  of 
propaganda;  all  nations  with  colonies  stand  together 
on  that  point.  Just  now  the  " tribesmen"  are  in 
revolt  in  the  new  Spanish  colony  of  Morocco;  up  to 
a  few  years  ago  these  " tribesmen"  had  for  a  thou- 
sand years  been  citizens  of  virtually  an  independent 
country,  and  for  half  that  period  the  governors  of 
Spain.  Suddenly  they  become  tribesmen.  Fifteen 
years  ago  the  press  propaganda  was  to  the  effect  that 
Belgian  officers  were  cutting  off  the  hands  of  children 
upon  the  rubber  plantations  in  the  Congo.  When  the 
Congo  matter  was  up  for  discussion,  the  Cape-to-Cairo 
railway  was  projected  through  all-British  territory. 
The  comment  of  the  since-famous  Belgian  Cardinal 
Mercier  upon  the  propaganda  against  his  Govern- 
ment was  that  investors  of  another  nation  were  looking 
with  longing  eyes  at  Naboth's  vineyard.  However,  as 
my  friend  Father  Patrick  Lynch  used  to  say  in  Manila, 
1  'Time  is  a  gentleman."  The  Cape-to-Cairo  railway 
may  now,  through  the  fortunes  of  war,  be  built  through 
all-British  territory  without  the  necessity  of  taking 
the  Congo  from  Belgium.  The  cutting  off  of  hands  is 
now  restricted  to  that  perpetrate^  in  the  press  upon 
Belgian  children  by  Germans. 

Another  example  of  the  use  of  propaganda  for  the 
purpose  of  territorial  seizure  is  the  annexation  of  the 
ancient  kingdom  of  Burma,  preceded  by  a  wide-spread 
circulation  of  shocking  stories  about  its  last  monarch, 
King  Thebaw ;  nothing  was  said  by  way  of  comparison 
about  the  monarchies  of  Europe.    Again,  the  downfall 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES     301 

of  self-government  in  Egypt  was  said  to  be  because 
of  the  financial  difficulties  in  which  Tewfik  Pasha  had 
become  involved,  whether  by  accident  or  design.  One 
excuse  will  serve  as  well  as  another.  If  one  would 
analyze  the  extent  to  which  this  game  has  been  de- 
veloped, the  skill  and  shrewdness  with  which  it  is 
played,  the  contemporary  files  of  the  newspapers  of  the 
day  will,  to  the  cynic,  nearly  always  supply  the  key  to 
the  downfall  of  any  independent  country  of  the  "back- 
ward peoples ' '  of  the  earth. 

Proponents  of  the  cause  of  Philippine  independence 
are  often  asked  whether  public  order  could  be  guar- 
anteed. Public  order  is  now  guaranteed  in  Cuba  by 
the  United  States  through  the  Piatt  Amendment.  No 
prophet  of  the  future  could  guarantee  indefinitely 
public  order  in  the  Philippines,  or  in  any  other  country 
of  this  changing  world.  In  our  own  country  we  have 
had,  among  the  more  significant  facts  of  history,  Ba- 
con's rebellion  in  Virginia,  Shay's  rebellion  in  Massa- 
chusetts, Dorr's  rebellion  in  Rhode  Island,  the  "whisky 
insurrection ' '  in  Pennsylvania,  not  to  mention  the  War 
of  the  Revolution  and  the  great  Civil  War  between  the 
States.  Nowadays  serious  public  disorders  which  are 
of  frequent  occurrence  in  our  country  generally  grow 
out  of  labor  disputes  such  as  those  in  recent  years  in 
Ohio,  Idaho,  West  Virginia,  Missouri,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania. All  that  can  be  done  looking  into  the  future 
is  to  require  that  any  government  shall  be  able  even- 
tually to  put  down  public  disorders.  That  the  Philip- 
pine Government  will  without  doubt  be  able  to  do, 
unless  interfered  with  by  some  outside  power.  Sir  H. 
H.  Johnston  has  recently  pointed  out  the  probability  of 
subjugation  of   an  independent  Philippines   by  the 


302     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Moros, — four  per  cent,  of  the  population.  He  forgets 
that  in  the  past  the  Moros  were,  through  the  action  of 
the  Spanish  Government  in  disarming  for  their  own 
purposes  the  Christian  Filipinos,  able  to  attack  almost 
with  impunity  their  brothers  to  the  north.  To-day  the 
Moros  are  disarmed,  and  the  Philippine  Government 
has  an  efficient  military  arm, — the  constabulary. 

Peace  and  public  order  have  been  excellent  in  the 
Philippines  during  recent  years;  with  every  decade 
that  passes,  the  local  jealousies  and  provincial  rivalries 
are  diminishing.  Attention  has  already  been  called 
to  the  successful  effort  of  the  Filipino  Legislature  to 
avoid  all  division  upon  provincial  lines.  The  univers- 
ities and  the  public  schools  are  having  a  powerful  effect 
in  unifying  the  people.  They  now  think  nationally, — 
not  as  Visayans  or  Tagalogs.  The  greatest  barrier  to 
more  rapid  assimilation  has  been  the  existence  of 
various  dialects  of  the  Malay  tongue  in  different  local- 
ities. The  public  schools  might  have  already  eliminated 
that  impediment  to  closer  union  of  thought  if  a  common 
dialect  had  been  restored  through  them,  as  has  been 
done  in  Java;  it  can  still  be  done,  and  within  a  very 
few  years  at  the  most.  Day  by  day  the  danger  of  fac- 
tional animosity  is  lessened. 

Disorders,  so  common  in  the  past,  due  to  the  exist- 
ence in  the  Philippines,  as  in  Spain,  of  large  bands  of 
ladrones  (robbers),  are  now  almost  a  thing  of  the  past. 
They  will  not  reappear  on  a  large  scale  in  the  future 
unless  discontent  with  the  attitude  toward  the  Filipinos 
of  the  "Metropolis '  as  they  call  the  United  States, 
shall  break  down  the  existing  structure  of  trust  and 
good- will;  then  ladrones  would  spring  up  again  as 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES   303 

the  precursors  of  insurrection  against  the  United 
States. 

The  theory  of  many  business  men  is  that  respect 
for  our  country  must  be  based  upon  the  power  of  might, 
upon  aggressive  assertion  of  race  superiority.  They 
are  singularly  unobservant  of  the  facts.  The  respect 
most  worth  having  is  not  always  the  respect  wrung  by 
force;  a  few  years  ago  in  Singapore  comment  was 
made  of  the  typical  personal  attitude  of  the  British 
"raj"  toward  the  natives;  they  "impressed  the  na- 
tives" by  assuming  an  air  of  austere  and  gloomy  su- 
periority; the  very  angle  of  the  chin  was  patronizing. 
They  did  not  know  that  their  pose  of  being  "like  gods 
together  careless  of  mankind"  was  described  by  the 
Malays  among  themselves  by  a  humorous  adjective 
translated  as  "airy."  To  the  Filipinos,  we  are  not  al- 
ways the  demigods  we  may  try  to  appear. 

There  is  an  old  saying  that  you  can  bring  a  horse 
to  water,  but  you  cannot  make  him  drink.  We  can 
station  a  large  army  in  the  Philippines,  but  we  cannot 
make  the  Filipinos  respect  the  flag  unless  we  are  true 
to  our  promises  and  keep  our  written  word  to  them. 
The  modern  era  of  loyalty  to  the  United  States  and  of 
enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  Filipinos  toward  us  is 
based  largely  upon  the  passage  of  the  Jones  Act. 
Many  visitors  have  commented  upon  the  universal  re- 
spect shown  in  recent  years  by  the  Filipino  crowds  at 
the  band  concerts  on  the  Luneta  when  our  national 
anthem  is  played.  Critics  had  feared  that  with  the 
lessening  of  American  governmental  domination  in  the 
islands,  the  Filipinos  would  comport  themselves  dis- 
respectfully toward  Americans.  Exactly  the  opposite 
has  come  to  pass.    When  in  October,  1919,  the  flag  law 


304    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

was  passed  in  Manila,  permitting  once  more  the  dis- 
play of  the  Filipino  flag,  all  observers  reported  that 
with  the  unfurling  of  their  own  flag  there  was  a  sudden 
outbreak  of  enthusiasm  for  the  American  flag,  which 
appeared  even  throughout  the  provinces  in  far  greater 
numbers  than  ever  before. 

As  has  been  already  noted,  American  business  houses 
have  generally  in  recent  times  followed  the  lead  of  the 
Government  in  Filipinizing  their  office  forces,  a  policy 
found  to  work  with  economy  and  efficiency.  But  of 
even  greater  importance  are  the  harmony  and  good- 
will with  which  it  has  been  accompanied.  They  are 
assets  which  business  cannot  afford  to  neglect.  Ameri- 
can goods  have  become  increasingly  popular  as  Ameri- 
can firms  have  made  friends  with  their  customers  in  the 
Philippines.  Public  order  is  indeed  essential  as  a 
basic  proposition;  public  friendship,  however,  is  the 
source  of  profits. 

While  many  business  men,  who  have  no  toleration 
for  the  political  rights  of  the  Filipinos  and  take  ready 
offense  at  the  mention  of  the  subject,  sincerely  believe 
that  it  is  our  duty  to  retain  the  islands  for  the  benefits 
we  can  confer  upon  the  native  inhabitants ;  while  others, 
forgetting  Cuba,  applaud  the  phrase  "where  once  the 
flag  has  waved  it  must  never  be  pulled  down,"  the  real 
driving-force  in  their  campaign  is  trade  advantage 
for  the  United  States.  This  is  expressed  in  the  Philip- 
pine tariff, — free  trade  with  the  United  States  and 
duties  against  the  rest  of  the  world.  England  has  at 
least  in  this  respect  shown  us  a  nobler  precedent, — 
free  trade  with  all  nations  in  her  British-controlled 
colonies.  Our  business  men  forget  that  our  own  Gov- 
ernment is  based  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed. 


THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES    305 

They  would  have  us  violate  our  own  principles,  en- 
courage the  resentment  and  hostility  of  an  alien  popu- 
lation of  eleven  million  people,  and  challenge  the  opin- 
ion of  the  world  by  holding  these  people  by  force.  If 
an  emergency  results,  the  consequent  expenditures  will 
far  exceed  the  profits  to  be  gained  by  financial  interests 
through  retention.  In  recent  years,  by  the  simple 
process  of  the  income  tax,  the  world  of  business  has 
learned  the  lesson  that  governmental  receipts  do  not 
grow  on  bushes,  but  are  paid  for  by  the  people. 

If  independence  is  granted  to  the  Filipinos,  the 
investments  of  our  business  men  will  not  suffer;  on 
the  contrary,  they  will  profit  from  the  gratitude  and 
good-will  of  the  Filipinos.  They  will  not  lose  the  re- 
spect of  the  people ;  instead,  the  Filipinos  will  be  tied 
to  us  more  firmly  by  bonds  of  affection  than  they  can 
ever  be  by  force. 

In  case  of  war  with  another  Pacific  Ocean  power, 
would  business  men  in  the  Philippines  prefer  to  have 
the  Filipino  friendly,  or  a  center  of  discontent  and  a 
danger  upon  our  most  exposed  front?  It  is  believed 
to  have  taken  at  least  two  hundred  thousand  of  her 
best  troops  all  through  the  war  to  enable  Great  Britain 
to  garrison  and  hold  Ireland  and  Egypt.  Is  this  good 
business?  Despite  the  somewhat  wasteful  and  un- 
scientific business  methods  peculiar  to  America  during 
the  last  century,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  there  can  be 
found  no  business  man  in  the  Philippines  who  cannot 
see  this  proposition  and  who  would  risk  the  advantage 
of  his  country  for  his  own  fancied  prospects  of  greater 
gain. 


CHAPTER  XX 
The  Japanese  Menace 

THE  near  approach  of  the  international  confer- 
ence of  the  powers  at  Washington  upon  the  prob- 
lems of  the  Pacific  renders  premature  any  present 
opinion  upon  the  future  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  Japan.1  The  Philippine  question  is  an  es- 
sential part  of  a  final  settlement.  Every  intelligent 
person  in  the  world  must  look  with  great  anxiety  upon 
the  progress  of  these  deliberations.  The  Pacific,  as 
things  stand  now,  bids  fair  to  be  the  arena  of  the  next 
great  struggle  between  the  nations.  It  is  a  thousand 
pities  that  the  motion  of  Senator  Pat  Harrison  of 
Mississippi  was  not  adopted  to  regulate  the  coming 
conference ;  he  was  for  ' '  open  covenants  openly  arrived 
at."  Memories  of  the  results  of  the  Versailles  Treaty 
are  still  too  recent;  this  is  no  time  for  greed,  for 
levity,  or  for  cynicism.  It  is  not  hyperbole  to  assert 
that  the  fate  of  the  modern  world  depends  upon  the 
outcome.  After  all  that  has  been  suffered  since  1914 
it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  nations  concerned  in  this 
meeting  will  approach  with  sincerity,  at  least,  the  sub- 
jects to  be  discussed.  Visitors  to  the  second  Hague 
Conference  of  1907  came  away  with  the  impression 
that  the  nations  there  represented  were  all  fencing  for 
their  own  advantage;  the  delegates  seemed  only  to 

1  The  publishers  call  the  reader  'a  attention  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Har- 
rison completed  his  book  in  September,  1921. 

306 


THE  JAPANESE  MENACE  307 

have  left  their  arms  outside  the  great  hall  of  the  con- 
ference. The  atmosphere  was  surcharged  with  hypoc- 
risy and  intrigue.  The  commissioners  from  Korea, 
come  to  plead  that  their  independent  existence  of  a 
thousand  years  be  recognized  again,  rapped  in  vain 
upon  the  door.  They  were  not  admitted.  Their  case 
was  not  debated. 

Nearly  every  nation  to-day  is  literally  staggering 
under  the  burden  of  armament;  most  of  the  govern- 
ments are  already  actually  bankrupt ;  the  world  is  one 
large  armed  camp ;  all  wish  to  disarm,  but  no  one  dares 
to  be  the  first.  The  last  time  disarmament  was  pro- 
posed, Germany  blocked  the  suggestion.  Which  coun- 
try will  it  be  this  time  f  Whichever  it  is,  that  govern- 
ment may  be  confidently  expected  to  become  the  next 
disturber  of  the  peace.  If  the  various  animosities  and 
rivalries  can  be  frankly  discussed,  it  is  possible  that  a 
real  gentleman's  agreement  can  be  reached.  Without 
a  genuine  understanding  upon  the  relations  of  the  na- 
tions to  one  another  the  representatives  will  journey 
homeward  sadder  but  not  wiser  men.  After  that  every 
gentleman  will  carry  his  gun  as  before,  and  perhaps 
add  a  few  concealed  weapons.  England  has  already 
abandoned  her  traditional  two-power  naval  standard 
because  the  money  for  maintaining  it  cannot  be  found. 
The  United  States  is  rapidly  approaching  the  one- 
power  standard.  Japan,  with  fewer  ships,  is  not  far 
behind.  For  what  purposes  are  they  arming?  This 
is,  or  of  right  ought  to  be,  the  main  topic  of  the  con- 
ference. Uncle  Sam,  while  professing  the  greatest 
interest  in  pacifism  as  an  ideal,  is  in  the  best  position 
to  win  in  the  competition  for  armaments ;  if  asked  to 
leave  his  gun  at  home,  he  is  at  least  entitled  to  know 


308    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  intentions  of  his  neighbors.  He  is  now  face  to 
face  with  the  two  most  astute  diplomats  of  all  time, 
John  Bull  and  the  Jap. 

The  future  of  the  Philippines  is  one  of  the  nerve 
centers  of  the  Pacific  problem.  There  can  be  no  ques- 
tion of  the  cession  of  the  islands  to  any  other  power ; 
no  administration  in  Washington  would  dare  to  pro- 
pose such  a  move;  no  Congress  would  consider  it. 
What,  then,  are  we  doing  in  the  Philippines'?  It  is 
doubtful  if  the  other  nations  believe  in  our  promises 
to  set  the  islands  free.  Has  not  Egypt  frequently  been 
promised  its  freedom?  In  the  old-style  diplomacy, 
such  words  as  U freedom"  and  " independence ' '  were 
used  to  soothe  naughty  or  troublesome  little  boys. 
England  has  been  glad  enough  to  have  us  retain  the 
Philippines ;  that  meant  that  none  of  her  rivals  in  im- 
perialism would  get  them, — particularly  Germany. 
The  Dutch  in  Java  and  the  Australians  want  us  to  re- 
main in  the  islands  as  a  buffer  state  between  them  and 
Japan.  Japan  did  not  burst  upon  the  stage  as  a  full- 
fledged  " great  power"  until  after  we  acquired  the 
islands.  No  doubt  Japan  is  seriously  worried  at  our 
forward  thrust  in  the  Orient,  especially  when  coupled 
with  our  hectoring  attitude  toward  her  in  China  and 
Siberia.  Japan  has  a  Monroe  Doctrine  of  her  own. 
Our  presence  in  the  Philippines  threatens  her  hege- 
mony in  the  Orient;  she  considers  it  a  danger  to  her- 
self. She  understands  the  meaning  of  the  circle  of 
posts  from  Hawaii,  Samoa,  Guam,  to  the  Philippines 
prepared  for  us  by  our  military  "  strategists  " ;  she  is 
accustomed  to  think  in  terms  of  "naval  stations," 
though  the  American  public  at  home  is  not, — in  fact, 
is  unaware  of  our  provoking  and  offensive  attitude 


THE  JAPANESE  MENACE  309 

toward  Japan.  Although  as  a  military  problem  the 
Philippines  form  the  weakest  link  in  the  armor  of  the 
United  States,  especially  vis-a-vis  Japan,  as  a  political 
problem,  as  the  visible  expression  of  American  policy, 
their  situation  is  of  immense  interest  to  the  Japanese. 
This  may  explain  the  general  support  accorded  by 
Japanese  statesmen  to  the  policy  of  independence  of 
the  Philippines.  They  want  to  see  the  United  States 
contract  its  frontier  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  so  that  there 
may  be  one  less  dagger  pointed  at  their  own  hearts. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  assume  that  Japan  cherishes  a 
secret  design  to  seize  the  Philippines  for  itself;  it 
would  hardly  be  worth  the  candle.  It  would  mean 
untold  trouble  for  Japan  from  the  Filipinos  them- 
selves, a  Christian  nation  which  would  never  submit 
willingly  to  Japanese  rule;  it  would  almost  certainly 
mean  a  war  with  the  United  States,  or  another  of  the 
great  powers. 

It  is  believed  that  Japan  would  gladly  consent  to 
join  in  a  guaranty  of  the  independence  of  the  Philip- 
pines, or  in  any  agreement  for  their  neutralization.  It 
would  be  unnecessary  to  doubt  the  given  word  of  Japan 
under  these  circumstances.  To  say  that  good-faith 
in  her  foreign  relations  is  relatively  as  high  as  in  the 
other  nations  is  perhaps  the  faint  praise  that  damns. 
She  has  at  least  stood  loyally  enough  by  her  agree- 
ments with  Great  Britain  and  with  us.  Although  in 
her  expansion  into  Asia  she  has  solemnly  made  use 
of  all  the  stock  in  trade  of  those  jugglers  known  as 
European  diplomats,  such  as  ''special  interests," 
"spheres  of  influence,"  "temporary  occupation,"  and 
"protection  of  national  interests,"  how  can  she  be 
justly  condemned  for  playing  the  game  as  it  is  being 


310    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

played  by  her  competitors'?  Japan  was  forced  by 
American  guns  to  open  her  doors  to  European  civil- 
ization ;  the  fate  of  China  aroused  her  then  to  her  own 
danger.  Japan  has  been  pushed  into  the  struggle; 
shall  she  be  abused  by  the  older  members  of  the  concert 
for  using  the  weapons  they  have  put  into  her  hands'? 

Taking  the  matter  at  the  lowest  level  and  placing 
reliance  upon  the  promises  of  nations  only  when  they 
are  perceived  to  be  in  accordance  with  their  selfish 
interests,  Japan  would  keep  her  hands  off  the  Philip- 
pines because  it  would  be  the  utmost  folly  for  her  to 
do  otherwise.  The  certainty  of  war,  the  comparative 
poverty  of  the  islands,  the  impossibility  of  Japanese 
laboring  in  large  numbers  in  the  tropics,  would  deter 
her  from  the  attempt  to  expand  into  the  Philippines. 
Even  though  the  United  States  had  assumed  no  protec- 
torate over  the  islands,  had  given  no  guaranty  of  inde- 
pendence, public  opinion  in  our  country  would  never 
consent  to  the  subjugation  of  the  Christian  republic  we 
had  set  up  with  the  loftiest  of  motives,  by  the  Japanese. 
If  the  forthcoming  conference  will  make  the  neutraliza- 
tion of  the  Philippines  the  keystone  of  the  arch  to  be 
erected  across  the  Pacific,  all  doubts  will  be  set  at  rest 
as  to  their  future,  and  the  structure  thus  created  will 
endure  for  many  a  long  year. 

The  Philippine 'question,  however,  is  but  one  of  our 
many  vexed  and  delicate  points  of  contact  with  Japan, 
though  it  is  indirectly  related  to  the  most  important 
matter  which  will  come  before  the  conference,  the 
"open  door"  in  China.  Most  American  business  men 
who  advocate  the  retention  of  the  Philippines  do  so  be- 
cause it  would  "make  a  base  for  our  future  trade  in 
China."    They  take  no  note  of  the  fact  that  the  Phil- 


THE  JAPANESE  MENACE  311 

ippines  are  far  away  from  the  shortest  route  between 
the  United  States  and  China ;  Chinese  trade  with  North 
America  does  not  pass  through  the  Philippines,  and 
never  will.  The  islands  have  no  more  relation  to  the 
Sino-American  commerce  than  has  Guam  or  Samoa, 
Perhaps,  though,  these  business  men  are  thinking  in 
terms  of  military  "strategy";  they  mean  to  force 
American  goods,  in  competition  with  other  strong-arm 
nations,  down  the  throats  of  the  Chinese  with  bayonets 
and  machine-guns.  If  so,  it  would  be  well  for  them 
to  reflect  that  our  wisest  military  tacticians  are  unan- 
imous in  the  opinion  that  the  possession  of  the  Philip- 
pines is  our  "heel  of  Achilles"  and  exposes  us  to 
great  national  peril.  If  Japan  chose  to  attack  us  in 
the  Philippines  she  would  be  selecting  her  own  field  of 
operations,  for  we  should  then  be  obliged  to  undertake 
the  defense  of  these  islands  eight  thousand  miles  from 
our  own  shores;  the  Batanes  Islands  to  the  north  of 
Luzon  are  only  thirty  miles  from  Formosa,  the  near- 
est Japanese  possession. 

Ever  since  the  days  of  John  Hay  as  Secretary  of 
State  the  "open  door"  in  China  has  been  supposed  to 
form  part  of  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States ;  it 
has,  however,  never  been  frankly  placed  before  the 
American  people  for  consideration ;  it  has  no  real  part 
in  our  national  traditions,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether, 
upon  that  issue,  the  American  people  would  ever  con- 
sider entering  upon  a  war.  The  danger  is  that  the  ad- 
ministration, under  our  system,  can  so  involve  the 
country  in  disputes  with  other  powers  that  war  be- 
comes inevitable.  It  should  be  clearly  understood  that 
the  "open  door"  does  not  occupy  a  position  in  the 
hearts  of  the  Americans  such  as  is  held  by  the  Monroe 


312     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Doctrine.  Nevertheless,  without  general  knowledge  of 
what  is  actually  going  on,  and  perhaps  without  ap- 
proval of  the  policy  in  any  sense,  the  "open  door" 
now  threatens  to  involve  us  in  a  war  with  Japan. 

Naturally  enough,  Americans  are  in  favor  of  the 
open  door;  it  means  that  they  shall  have  equal  trade 
rights  in  the  vast  markets  of  China;  we  are  also  in 
favor  of  the  open  door  everywhere  else,  if  we  can  get  it. 
We  are  actually  struggling  to  open  the  door  to  the 
Mesopotamian  oil-fields.  Meanwhile  we  close  the  door 
of  our  own  country  with  tariffs,  with  coastwise  ship- 
ping prohibitions,  and  by  forbidding  the  immigration 
of  both  Chinese  and  Japanese.  It  is  a  poor  rule  that 
will  not  work  both  ways.  It  is  said,  however,  that  all 
wars  are  economic.  We  have,  under  our  Constitution, 
reserved  to  Congress  the  right  to  declare  war;  it 
is  seldom  more  than  a  perfunctory  process.  The 
newspapers  declare  war,  and  the  President  is  by 
them  crowded  into  a  position  where  he  virtually 
commits  our  country  to  war,  before  Congress  acts. 
Under  the  present  circumstances,  this  same  open-door 
question,  which  is  the  root  of  our  trouble  with  Japan, 
may  not  be  recognized  by  our  people  as  the  real  point 
at  issue  until  too  late,  and  the  disease  will  then  run 
its  course  without  diagnosis.  Our  commercial  interest 
in  China,  which  is  the  same  as  the  commercial  interest 
of  all  other  countries,  namely  the  desire  to  make  money 
out  of  the  Chinese,  is  presented  to  our  public  dressed 
in  the  benevolent  disguise  of  lofty  altruism  for  China 's 
welfare  and  affection  for  those  same  Chinese  whom 
we  will  not  allow  to  enter  our  own  country. 

Comment  has  just  been  made  upon  the  open  door 
in  China  as  the  root  of  our  trouble  with  Japan.    It  is 


THE  JAPANESE  MENACE  313 

not  meant  thereby  to  suggest  that  we  should  not  in- 
sist, and  as  vigorously  as  we  can,  that  our  commerce 
should  have  the  same  rights  as  that  of  Japan  in  the 
markets  of  China.  That  is  the  duty  of  the  American 
representatives  at  the  conference.  The  danger  lies 
in  the  method  of  our  foreign  policy. 

Japan  is  increasing  in  population  at  the  rate  of 
about  six  hundred  thousand  a  year.  Her  people  are 
already  tired  of  the  rather  degrading  forms  of  in- 
tensive agriculture  to  which  they  are  forced  by  their 
narrow  territorial  limits.  We  will  not  permit  the  sur- 
plus of  Japanese  to  enter  the  United  States;  we  are 
affronted  by  their  entrance  in  any  large  numbers  into 
Mexico  or  South  America.  They  are  not  admitted  to 
British  Columbia,  Australia,  or  New  Zealand.  In  be- 
tween lie  the  tropical  lands  to  which  they  are  not  by 
nature  adapted.  Where  are  they  to  go?  If  the  other 
powers  insist  upon  shutting  up  all  the  steam  in  the 
boiler,  there  is  bound  to  be  an  explosion;  and  the  noise 
thereof  will  shatter  the  world  just  at  the  moment  when 
we  are  recovering  from  the  effects  of  stifling  the  ex- 
pansion of  Germany.  The  resources  and  industries  of 
Japan  are  growing  in  like  proportion  to  their  popula- 
tion. Where  are  they  to  find  an  outlet  for  their  nat- 
ural expansion  in  trade? 

The  natural  answer  to  these  questions  is,  of  course, 
in  Asia.  Japan  must  expand  to  the  westward,  since 
she  is  denied  all  other  safety-valves;  and  expand  she 
must,  or  burst.  Her  methods  of  expansion  are  de- 
plored by  all  the  other  powers,  but  they  have  been  con- 
ducted according  to  the  strictest  rules  of  diplomacy 
observed  regularly  by  the  foreign  offices  of  old  Europe. 
We  had  an  opportunity  of  protesting  at  the  time  when 


314     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

we  were  in  duty  bound  to  do  so, — when  Japan  an- 
nexed Korea  with  whom  we  had  a  treaty  we  should 
have  then  respected.  Japan  was  snubbed  and 
thwarted  in  turn  by  China,  Eussia,  and  Germany.  She 
bided  her  time  and  struck  them,  one  after  the  other, 
a  telling  blow.  Now  the  other  nations  have  drawn  in 
their  horns,  and  some  of  them  are  deliberately  egging 
on  the  United  States  to  face  the  music. 

We  do  not  desire  to  see  Japan  annex  Manchuria  and 
eastern  Siberia,  but  are  we  ready  to  pay  the  price  to 
prevent  her?  Is  it  really  any  of  our  business,  or  our 
concern  f  Japan  is  called  the  * '  Germany  of  the  East. ' ' 
It  seems  doubtful  whether  the  world  is  prepared  to 
administer  to  Japan  the  same  treatment  it  accorded  to 
Germany.  The  maps  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  are 
covered  with  territorities  annxed  by  European  powers 
with  less  justification  than  Japan  can  find  for  her  ex- 
pansion westward.  The  law  that  is  driving  Japan 
onward  is  the  law  of  existence;  she  must  either  grow 
or  die.  "Who  is  preparing  to  give  her  the  coup  de 
grace?  If  it  is  secretly  hoped  by  the  concert  of  Euro- 
pean powers  that  we  will  take  on  the  task,  let  us  first 
be  sure  that  we  are  not  merely  serving  their  selfish 
purposes.  If  we  push  Japan  out  of  China,  it  is  certainly 
not  in  order  to  seize  the  Celestial  kingdom  for  our- 
selves. But  we  may  make  it  easier  for  others  to  seize 
it.  France  has  already  taken  the  southernmost  portion 
of  China ;  the  English  have  Hong-Kong  and  a  ' '  special 
interest"  in  the  great  valley  of  the  Yang-tse.  Profes- 
sor Dewey,  in  a  recent  article  written  from  Canton,  de- 
scribes British  financial  aggressions  in  that  neighbor- 
hood, and  adds  that  the  Chinese  are  as  much  alarmed 
over  the  invasion  of  the  English  in  the  South  as  of  the 


THE  JAPANESE  MENACE  315 

Japanese  in  the  North.  Pulling  chestnuts  out  of  the 
fire  may  be  an  exciting  game,  but  it  is  reserved  only  for 
simpletons.  Many  of  his  friends  wish  that  President 
Wilson  had  stepped  aboard  the  George  Washington 
when  he  held  the  threat  of  departure  over  the  heads  of 
the  Council  of  Four  in  Paris ;  that  he  had  then  come 
home  and  said  as  Abraham  Lincoln  might  have  re- 
marked: "Well,  boys,  we  can't  do  business  with  those 
fellows ;  we  don 't  speak  their  language. ' ' 

When  the  other  powers  were  bending  every  effort  to 
crush  Germany,  Japan  seized  the  opportunity  in  1915 
to  present  her  ' '  twenty-one  points ' '  to  China ;  accept- 
ance by  that  helpless  Government  meant  a  partial  sur- 
render of  sovereignty.  There  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  before  the  war  with  China,  in  1895,  the  Jap- 
anese in  pursuance  of  their  "Monroe  Doctrine"  were 
really  trying  to  prevent  the  partition  of  China  by 
Russia,  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Germany.  They 
have,  despite  the  resistance  of  China,  and  galled  by 
the  contempt  of  the  Chinese  for  the  "dwarfs,"  suc- 
ceeded in  breaking  up  the  organized  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  Europeans  to  carve  up  the  map  of  China. 
But  they  have  earned  the  hatred  of  the  Chinese  people, 
and  were  eventually  and  most  unwisely  led  into  pre- 
senting their  "twenty-one  points."  Some  of  the 
points  were  accepted  by  China  under  protest  that  they 
were  forced  upon  her  under  duress.  Our  Government 
as  the  "next  friend"  of  China  also  protested,  but 
ended,  in  the  Lansing-Ishii  agreement,  by  recognizing 
the  "special  interests"  of  Japan  in  China. 

The  Old- World  feudal  kingdom  of  Japan,  shut  up 
within  itself  for  so  many  centuries,  had  not  learned  to 
understand  the  sentiments  and  feelings  of  other  races ; 


316     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

individually  the  Japanese  are  not  tactful  in  their 
gestures  toward  the  other  nations.  The  attitude  of 
the  Japanese  Government  toward  our  own  has  always 
been  correct  and  self-contained.  It  seems  probable 
that  the  Genro,  or  Elder  Statesmen,  are  determined  to 
preserve  the  peace  with  America;  the  military  party 
in  their  government  is,  however,  constantly  pressing 
toward  collision  with  the  United  States.  The  people 
of  Japan,  under  universal  primary  education,  are  great 
readers  of  the  newspapers,  and  certain  organs  of  the 
press  in  Japan  are  constantly  inflaming  public  opinion 
against  us.  The  atmosphere  is  no  longer  even  friendly 
to  American  tourists,  however  correct  and  polite  the 
official  attitude  toward  traveling  Americans  may  be. 
The  constant  journeys  of  our  army  and  naval  officers 
through  Japan  to  and  from  China  and  the  Philippines 
are  a  source  of  danger.  An  insult  to  one  of  them  could 
easily  be  interpreted  as  an  insult  to  the  United  States, 
however  irresponsible  the  perpetrators.  The  killing 
of  Lieutenant  Langdon,  U.  S.  N.,  by  a  Japanese  sentry 
in  Vladivostok  last  year  might  easily  have  brought  on 
a  crisis.  Our  participation  in  the  denial  at  Paris  to 
the  Japanese  of  racial  equality  added  fuel  to  the 
flames.  The  petty  exactions  and  harassing  questions  of 
the  minor  officials  of  the  Japanese  customs,  quarantine, 
and  Public  Health  Department  often  throw  whole  par- 
ties of  American  tourists  into  a  perfect  fury.  No  doubt 
the  Japanese  Government  is  fully  alive  to  the  situa- 
tion, and  presumably  deplores  it. 

The  California  question  is  not  the  real  bone  of  con- 
tention. Japan  is  bound,  like  any  other  self-respecting 
nation,  to  protest  at  the  discrimination  against  her 


THE  JAPANESE  MENACE  317 

people  in  California.  They  know  that  the  question  is, 
as  yet,  local  to  that  state.  But  Japan  does  not  talk 
of  going  to  war  with  Great  Britain  over  the  exclusion 
of  Japanese  from  all  the  British  colonies  in  the  Pacific. 
On  the  contrary,  Japan  and  Great  Britain  have  a  spe- 
cial treaty  of  alliance.  This  leaves  us  with  the  sus- 
picion that  the  California  question  is  being  deliberately 
pushed  to  the  front  by  the  Japanese,  to  cloak  the  real 
issue ;  that  it  will  form  the  basis  for  a  ' '  trade ' '  in  nego- 
tiations over  the  real  point  at  issue.  It  may  be  as- 
sumed that  this  is  freedom  from  interference  by  us 
in  her  drive  into  Asia. 

The  participation  of  the  United  States  Army  and 
Navy  in  the  Siberian  campaign  of  1918-19  has  never 
been  fully  understood  by  our  own  public ;  the  Japanese, 
however,  probably  made  it  their  business  to  know  ex- 
actly what  it  meant.  We  had  declared  no  war  upon 
Russia,  but  were  actively  engaged  in  the  campaign 
against  her  form  of  government  which  ended  so  disas- 
trously for  the  allied  armies  upon  the  western  front. 
If  our  troops  were  there  to  guard  the  railway  material 
sent  over  by  us  before  the  collapse  of  the  preceding 
Russian  Government,  the  activities  of  our  soldiers 
should  have  been  confined  to  that  purpose. 

Although  mankind  repeats  in  every  generation  the 
folly  of  trying  to  kill  " ideas"  with  the  sword,  nobody 
can  be  so  foolish  as  to  believe  that  we  sent  an  army  to 
Siberia  to  prevent  by  force  of  arms  Bolshevik  ideas 
from  entering  the  United  States.  If  history  must  re- 
peat itself,  it  is  regrettable  that  the  most  mischievous 
experiments  are  those  most  frequently  repeated.  Most 
of  the  American  soldiers  who  served  in  Siberia  came 


318     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

home  Bolsheviks.  The  real  purpose  seems  to  have 
been  to  prevent  Japan  from  securing  a  permanent  foot- 
hold in  Siberia. 

If,  then,  our  army  in  Siberia  was  sent  there  to  watch 
the  Japanese,  or  even  if  they  believe  it  to  have  been 
there  for  that  purpose,  the  situation  is  serious  enough 
from  any  point  of  view.  They  may  not  challenge  the 
point  directly,  for  at  least  we  had  as  much  right  to 
invade  Siberia  as  they  had, — which  was  none !  If,  in 
their  own  secret  councils,  they  entertain  imperialistic 
ideas  in  regard  to  eastern  Siberia,  may  they  not 
also  believe  that  we  have  the  same?  Certainly  our 
active  interest  in  China  and  our  continued  retention  of 
the  Philippines  must  seem  to  Japan  to  have  that  mean- 
ing. Well  might  they  ask  us  as  to  Siberia:  "What 
are  you  doing  in  this  galley  V* 

All  men  of  responsibility  in  the  two  nations  must 
hope  for  a  peaceful  settlement  of  these  questions  at  the 
forthcoming  conference  in  Washington.  War  would 
be  disastrous  for  Japan  and  possibly  for  the  United 
States.  Neither  has  anything  to  gain  from  it,  both 
much  to  lose.  We  are  the  best  customer  for  Japanese 
trade;  we  should  frankly  convince  her  that  we  en- 
tertain no  thoughts  of  territorial  aggression  in  Asia; 
and  we  should  keep  our  word  as  to  withdrawing  from 
the  possession  of  the  Philippines,  while  at  the  same 
time  we  should  insist  upon  equal  opportunities  for 
trade  throughout  the  Orient.  We  must  leave  to  mili- 
tary men  an  estimate  of  the  outcome  of  trial  in 
arms;  naturally  enough,  we  are  confident  we  can  beat 
Japan ;  so  was  Russia.  As  Norman  Angell  has  proved, 
however,  the  country  which  wins  a  war  really 
loses  it. 


THE  JAPANESE  MENACE  319 

The  League  of  Nations  has  up  to  the  present  time 
proved  for  the  Filipinos  a  broken  reed ;  they  now  hope 
that  they  may  secure  their  hopes  and  aspirations  as  a 
result  of  the  Pacific  conference. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

The  Effect  of  the  Amekican  Policy  in  the  Phil- 
ippines upon  the  European  Masters  of  Asia 

AN  attempt  has  been  made  in  the  preceding  pages 
to  present  the  Philippine  problem  from  the  Amer- 
ican and  from  the  Filipino  point  of  view.  In  conclu- 
sion, attention  should  be  invited  to  the  immense  if  un- 
expected influence  of  our  policy  in  the  islands  upon  the 
powers  of  Europe. 

Upon  the  acquisition  of  our  Asiatic  dependency 
twenty-three  years  ago,  we  announced  that  we  were  to 
hold  the  islands  temporarily  and  for  the  benefit  and 
welfare  of  the  native  inhabitants,  not  for  our  own 
selfish  purposes.  This  was  a  shock  to  the  feelings  of 
the  colonial  offices  of  Europe.  Uncle  Sam  was  a  rude, 
hustling  fellow  who  refused  to  take  his  appointed  seat 
at  the  table  and  join  the  feast.  Perhaps,  after  all, 
they  thought,  we  did  not  mean  what  we  said.  When, 
however,  we  began  to  institute  self-government  in  the 
Philippines  and  even  to  talk  of  independence,  it  was 
clear  that  we  were  threatening  the  established  order 
of  affairs  throughout  the  colonial  world.  Our  an- 
nouncements were  greeted  with  derision  and  ill-con- 
cealed alarm.  This  was  going  too  far,  said  they,  and 
moreover  it  was  impolite.  Did  we  mean  to  insinuate 
that  they  were  holding  a  large  portion  of  the  globe  in 
subjection  for  any  other  reason  than  because  they  had 
taken  up  the  White  Man 's  Burden  f    It  was  never  gold, 

320 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        321 

or  oil,  or  rubber  that  caused  them  to  conquer  weaker 
countries,  but  always  "honor."  "When  their  honor 
or  their  "manifest  destiny"  was  involved,  they  could 
not  be  expected  to  hesitate.  Our  thesis  was  little  short 
of  an  insult! 

The  evidence  that  we  were  in  earnest  accumulated 
rapidly;  we  really  did  give  the  Filipinos  self-govern- 
ment and  in  the  Jones  Act  of  1916  promised  them  inde- 
pendence. Upon  the  whole,  we  had  faithfully  observed 
President  McKinley's  altruistic  policy,  although  it 
is  true  that  we  showed  selfish  purposes  in  tariff 
legislation  by  which  we  have  secured  two  thirds  of 
the  foreign  trade  of  the  Philippines  for  ourselves, 
and  in  the  proposition  to  extend  our  coastwise  ship- 
ping laws  to  the  islands.  If  on  these  points  we  stum- 
bled slightly  in  our  program  of  unselfishness,  we  have 
certainly  shown  unparalleled  generosity  in  our  deal- 
ings with  the  native  inhabitants  of  the  islands  and  are 
fast  developing  them  toward  an  independent  nation- 
ality. 

The  displeasure  of  Great  Britain  in  particular  was 
apparent ;  if  the  British  were,  as  it  is  supposed,  mainly 
instrumental  in  persuading  our  Government  to  retain 
the  islands,  they  must  have  long  ago  regretted  their 
mistake.  Last  year  in  Simla  the  Liberal  Viceroy  of 
India,  Lord  Chelmsford,  asked  me  about  the  conditions 
in  the  Philippines.  I  explained  our  original  embarrass- 
ment at  finding  the  islands  on  our  hands  without  any 
provision  for  that  kind  of  ownership  under  our  Con- 
stitution, which  is  based  upon  the  ' '  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned," and  added  that  I  supposed  we  had  held  the 
archipelago  upon  the  insistence  of  England.  "Well," 
he  replied,  "if  that  embarrassed  your  country,  you 


322     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

have  no  idea  how  much  your  Philippine  policy  has  em- 
barrassed us!"  This  conscientious  and  anxious  man 
was  at  that  very  time  trying  to  institute  in  the  great 
empire  of  India  some  form  of  responsible  self-govern- 
ment. He  seemed  particularly  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  after  self-government  had  been  given  the  Filipinos 
they  had  stopped  criticizing  the  United  States  and 
turned  to  their  own  political  campaigns;  he  had  the 
hope  of  the  same  outcome  in  India. 

It  has  for  the  past  century  been  a  fundamental 
maxim  of  the  European  powers  that  the  native  races 
in  the  tropics  are  totally  unfit  for  self-government ;  that 
the  Asiatic  is  "inferior."  Forgotten  are  the  days  of 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  when  the  first 
European  adventurers  brought  home  marvelous  tales 
of  the  magnificence  and  power  of  the  Great  Mogul  and 
of  the  Great  Khan.  Few  Europeans  were  admitted  to 
the  presence  of  these  rulers,  and  those  few  knelt 
humbly  before  them  in  palaces  which  are  still  among 
the  wonders  of  the  world.  The  wealth  of  the  Indies  set 
aflame  the  imagination  and  covetousness  of  the  com- 
paratively poor  courts  of  Europe.  It  was  not  until 
the  superiority  of  the  white  man's  armaments  became 
established  that  the  total  incapacity  and  unworthiness 
of  the  Asiatics  to  govern  their  own  countries  became 
the  accepted  creed.  One  after  another  the  Oriental 
monarchs  were  overthrown  by  the  less  cultivated  but 
more  vigorous  Europeans.  Revenge  was  taken  for 
the  prior  invasions  of  Europe  from  the  East.  Might 
was  right,  and  few  questions  of  international  morality 
troubled  the  conquerors  of  those  days.  After  all,  were 
they  not  extending  the  beneficent  sway  of  Christen- 
dom?   To-day  Japan  alone  stands  as  the  only  stum- 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        323 

bling-block  in  the  path  of  the  complete  conquest  of  Asia 
by  the  invading  whites.  China,  Siam,  Afghanistan, 
and  Persia  are  only  nominally  independent;  in  all  of 
them  the  hand  of  the  white  man  bears  heavily  upon 
the  reins  of  state.  So  far,  China's  complete  dismem- 
berment has  been  prevented  by  international  jeal- 
ousies. But  now  that  Germany  and  Russia  are  put  out 
of  the  running,  and  France  deeply  absorbed  in  Africa, 
England  and  Japan  hold  China  in  a  major  tenace.  Sim- 
ilar is  the  fate  of  Siam,  which  has  been  gradually  par- 
titioned in  the  past  thirty  years  between  Great  Britain 
and  France.  If  one  power  seizes  territory,  compensa- 
tion is  sought  by  the  other.  Cambodia,  the  eastern 
third  of  Siam,  with  its  ancient  temple  of  Angkor  Vat, 
was  made  a  part  of  French  Indo-China.  At  once  Eng- 
land responded  by  seizing  the  provinces  of  Trengganu 
and  Kelantan  on  the  south.  In  Bangkok  the  King  of 
Siam  used  boastingly  to  say  that  the  bar  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Menam  River  was  a  better  protection  to  his 
country  than  military  preparedness;  but  a  European 
shallow-draft  modern  destroyer  slipped  over  the  bar 
and  with  its  guns  silenced  his  objections  to  aggres- 
sion. 

Under  the  plea  of  extraterritoriality,  which  means 
the  right  of  foreign  nations  to  have  their  citizens  tried 
in  Siam,  as  in  China,  by  judges  of  their  own  nationality, 
the  whole  internal  administration  of  Siam  is  directed 
by  the  whites.  A  few  years  ago  a  prince  of  the  house 
of  Siam  mournfully  asked  me  if  the  United  States 
could  not  protect  the  independence  of  his  ancient  king- 
dom from  England  and  France,  as  we  were  doing  for 
Liberia.  Instead,  we  are  joining  in  the  game  of  extra- 
territoriality in  Siam. 


324     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

The  first  reversal  of  the  process  was  the  defeat  of 
Eussia  by  Japan.  The  hopes  of  the  colored  races  of 
Asia  at  once  revived :  had  not  the  little  Japanese,  en- 
tirely unaided,  overthrown  the  mightiest  military 
power  of  the  white  man?  At  last,  they  thought,  the 
tide  had  turned. 

In  no  one  of  the  long  list  of  subjugated  peoples  from 
Tsingtau  to  Cairo  had  the  white  man  won  the  confi- 
dence and  loyalty  of  those  upon  whom  he  had  imposed 
his  rule.  One  axiom  upon  which  all  the  European 
powers  insisted  was  the  inferiority  of  the  Asiatic, — 
an  inferiority  mental  and  moral  as  well  as  social.  The 
prestige  of  the  white  man  must  be  maintained  at  any 
and  all  hazards.  The  Asiatic  must  not  be  recognized 
socially,  he  must  not  be  admitted  to  any  clubs  or  friend- 
ships of  equality;  he  must  be  humble  in  address  and 
cringe  before  his  master;  in  fine,  he  must  be  kept  in 
his  place.  Thus  were  some  of  the  most  ancient  civiliza- 
tions of  the  world  held  up  to  hatred,  contempt,  and  rid- 
icule. We  cannot  wonder  that  resentment  has  burnt 
into  the  soul  of  the  Asiatic,  and  that  he,  too,  prays 
for  "The  Day." 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  idea  of  a  colony,  as  under- 
stood in  the  days  of  ancient  Greece,  was  a  permanent 
settlement  of  emigrants  from  the  native  city,  free  from 
political  control  from  the  fatherland ;  such  were  Syra- 
cuse and  Massalia,  now  Marseilles.  Then  came  Rome 
and  annexed  to  her  empire  large  foreign  populations, 
to  whom  the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship  were  even- 
tually granted.  The  conquest  of  Asia  by  Europe  in 
modern  times  has  been  conducted  upon  quite  a  differ- 
ent theory :  it  is  the  holding  of  distant  peoples  in  per- 
petual subjugation,  upon  an  acknowledged  basis  of 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        325 

political  and  personal  inferiority,  for  purposes  of  ex- 
ploitation. This  was  the  first  article  of  faith,  the  un- 
questioned rule  of  white  domination  of  Asiatics,  until 
the  United  States  entered  the  field  with  her  Philippine 
policy. 

The  results  of  our  heresy  have  been  far-reaching, 
and  have  shaken  seriously  the  colonial  offices  of  Great 
Britain,  of  France,  and  of  Holland;  they  have  also 
brought  hope  and  inspiration  to  millions  of  patient 
brown  and  yellow  men  who  find  in  the  new  ideas  of 
America  a  promise  for  the  future.  The  European 
powers  which  control  the  news  service  of  the  world  did 
nothing,  naturally  enough,  to  spread  the  new  ideas. 
No  mention  of  the  Philippines  was  allowed  to  appear 
in  any  periodical  for  distribution  in  the  colonies.  The 
only  reference  to  American  work  in  the  islands  which 
I  have  seen  in  a  British  magazine  was  a  picture  in  an 
English  publication  a  few  years  ago  entitled  "  Amer- 
ican health  work  in  the  Philippines"  which  depicted  a 
white  doctor  in  a  solar  topee  vaccinating  a  "Filipino." 
The  "native"  was  trying  to  escape  up  a  cocoanut 
palm,  and  the  doctor  had  him  by  the  foot ;  the  Filipino 
was  a  frizzy-haired  Zulu !  Even  so  recognized  a  Lib- 
eral as  Viscount  Bryce  tries  in  his  last  book  to  dis- 
credit the  American  theory  of  educating  these  natives 
for  self-government,  and  classes  the  Filipino  with  the 
Bantu  savages  of  Africa.  Few  Englishmen,  officials 
or  merchants,  in  Asia,  until  very  recently,  would  even 
discuss  the  Philippines ;  if  they  did,  it  was  generally  in 
terms  of  hatred  and  scorn  for  the  Filipinos,  and  ridi- 
cule for  the  fantastic  ideas  of  the  Americans.  As  ex- 
pressed by  Stephen  Bonsai  in  his  book,  English  opin- 
ion was  that 


326    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

it  would  be  disastrous  for  the  Filipinos  themselves,  and  for 
you,  and  a  thousand  times  more  disastrous  for  all  white  men 
having  an  interest  in  the  development  of  the  East  Coast, 
should  your  statesmen  and  legislators  be  "hoodwinked"  by 
their  bombastic  proclamations  into  treating  them  as  civilized 
men  capable  of  self-government. 

Yet,  somehow,  in  that  mysterious  way  in  which 
news  travels  in  the  East,  word  went  out  to  the  farthest 
confines  of  the  Orient  of  what  America  was  doing  in 
the  Philippines.  In  the  bazaars  of  India,  along  the  har- 
bors of  Malaysia,  and  even  in  the  far-away  mountain 
passes  of  Armenia,  the  word  was  whispered  about. 
Mr.  Charles  R.  Crane,  formerly  Minister  to  China, 
reports  that  on  his  mission  for  the  United  States  to 
Asia  Minor  in  1918  he  found  everywhere  an  eagerness 
that  our  country  should  accept  a  mandate  under  the 
League  of  Nations,  for  those  populations,  so  that  we 
could  do  for  them  what  we  had  done  for  the  Filipinos. 
In  Madras,  last  year,  Mrs.  Annie  Besant,  formerly 
president  of  the  all-India  Congress,  told  me  how 
largely  the  Indian  movement  for  home  rule  had  been 
inspired  by  our  Philippine  policy.  Frequently  I  have 
been  told  by  visiting  delegations  of  Chinese  that  their 
belief  in  the  honor  and  unselfishness  of  America  was 
firmly  based  upon  our  attitude  toward  the  Filipinos. 
The  pressure  of  native  opinion  in  Java,  in  Ceylon,  and 
in  Indo-China,  which  has  led  within  the  past  five  years 
to  the  beginnings  in  those  colonies  of  native  participa- 
tion in  the  government,  sprang  in  large  part  from  the 
same  source.  The  conclusion  to  be  drawn  is  evident: 
ideas  are  still  more  powerful  in  the  regulation  of  hu- 
man conduct  than  mere  force.  Neither  Poland  nor  Fin- 
land in  their  century  of  martyrdom  lost  their  faith  and 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        327 

ideals ;  not  even  the  greatest  of  armies  could  crush  out 
their  ideas. 

It  may  seem  surprising,  in  retrospect,  to  consider 
how  indifferent  the  European  masters  have  been  to 
the  policy  of  making  friends  with  those  whom  they  have 
conquered  and  whose  territories  they  have  annexed. 
One  historian  of  India  has  stated  that  the  social  dis- 
qualification of  the  Indians  dates  from  the  arrival  of 
the  first  English  ladies  in  that  country ;  he  argued  that 
Warren  Hastings  would  never  have  committed  such  a 
dangerous  mistake;  he  and  Clive  conquered  and  gov- 
erned India  through  the  Indians  themselves,  and  knew 
personally  all  the  intrigues  and  political  movements  of 
their  time.  Two  generations  later,  when  the  line  of 
social  intercourse  had  been  sharply  drawn,  the  Mutiny 
took  the  British  completely  by  surprise.  Others  have 
explained  that  the  "prestige"  of  the  white  man  is  the 
chief  reliance  of  the  governors  in  ruling  with  a  hand- 
ful of  Europeans  vast  populations  of  natives.  The 
same  idea  of  an  imposing  personal  presence  underlay 
the  ancient  Chinese  method  of  wearing  hideous  masks 
in  battle  to  frighten  their  opponents !  The  indifference 
of  these  rulers  to  the  feelings  and  sentiments  of  the 
ruled  can  perhaps  be  better  understood  by  a  considera- 
tion of  the  motives  which  brought  them  to  Asia  and 
have  induced  them  to  stay. 

Two  of  the  smallest  countries  territorially,  England 
and  Holland,  hold  to-day  the  greatest  empires  in  Asia ; 
they  were  originally  impelled  by  the  same  motive  in 
entering  the  East, — the  desire  for  financial  gain.  Port- 
ugal and  Spain  in  their  day  of  greatness  had  professed 
their  desire  of  proselyting,  of  adding  more  Christians 
to  the  spiritual  kingdom  of  the  pope.     England  and 


328     MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

Holland,  both  already  Protestant  countries,  sallied 
forth  in  search  of  riches;  they  won  their  empires  by 
their  skill  and  daring  on  the  sea.  Each  power  started 
with  mere  trading-posts  or  factories,  upon  the  coast ; 
each  power  was  led  little  by  little  to  interfere  with  the 
internal  politics  of  the  peoples  of  the  interior;  each 
eventually  annexed  an  empire.  In  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  English  defeated  the  French  in 
India,  and  the  path  was  clear  for  further  annexations ; 
peaceful  settlement  of  rivalries  with  Holland  was  made 
by  the  exchange  of  Sumatra  for  Ceylon,  and  the  grad- 
ual absorption  of  India  was  begun.  It  is  curious  to 
note  how  one  step  led  logically  to  another.  It  is  the 
same  in  court,  where  one  misstatement  by  a  witness 
inevitably  leads  him  to  an  endless  chain  of  others  to 
cover  his  position.  From  the  first  seizures  of  territory 
along  the  coast,  each  further  move  inward  was  made 
to  protect  the  bases  already  annexed;  the  process  has 
developed  until  sovereignty  or  domination  of  all  of 
southwestern  Asia  is  now  claimed  by  England  as  nec- 
essary to  protect  her  Indian  Empire.  Beluchistan, 
Mesopotamia,  Arabia,  and  even  far-away  Egypt  are 
always  cited  as  vital  British  interests  on  account  of 
her  Indian  possessions.  Afghanistan  and  Persia  would 
have  been  gathered  in  the  same  capacious  net,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  intrigues  and  rivalries  with  Russia. 
Mr.  Morgan  Shuster's  book  on  "The  Strangling  of 
Persia"  clearly  sets  forth  the  method  by  which  the 
work  of  empire-building  is  carried  on. 

No  question  ever  arises  in  imperial  councils  as  to 
the  political  rights  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  countries 
annexed ;  personal  rights  are  generally  secured  by  just 
laws  and  wise  administrators ;  order  is  usually  imposed 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        329 

and  maintained,  though,  it  is  to  be  noted,  generally  at 
the  expense  of  the  people  governed.  Until  recent  years, 
few  voices  were  lifted  either  in  England  or  in  Holland 
in  assertion  of  the  political  rights  of  their  Indian  em- 
pires. The  frequent  appearance  within  the  last  decade, 
in  the  public  press  and  in  books  and  periodicals  in 
Great  Britain,  of  discussions  of  the  rights  of  the  In- 
dian peoples  shows  that  a  steady  searching  of  con- 
science is  now  in  process.  It  is  unnecessary  to  quote 
from  severe  self-criticisms  by  British  authors  of  their 
position  and  administration  in  India.  Undoubtedly, 
some  of  their  officials  have  been  better  than  others; 
some  have  been  wise  and  sympathetic,  others  have  not. 
The  main  point  to  be  noted  is  that,  despite  traditions 
of  public  service  in  India  ever  since  the  empire  was 
annexed  to  the  Crown,  traditions  which  would  be  a 
source  of  pride  and  credit  in  the  main  to  any  country, 
the  British  themselves  are  now  beginning  to  be  rest- 
less over  the  ethical  question  involved.  It  appears  to 
many  of  their  liberal  writers  to-day  that  the  iron- 
bound  system  by  which  they  have  governed  India 
violated  those  rights  of  man  upon  which  the  modern 
world  is  slowly  coming  to  an  agreement. 

Prudence,  moreover,  dictates  a  shift  of  policy  to 
meet  the  new  movement  for  self-government  so  vig- 
orous throughout  Asia.  Under  the  Montagu-Chelms- 
ford  plan,  the  germs  of  self-determination  are  now 
planted  among  the  peoples  of  India.  The  impediment 
to  prompter  action  in  this  direction  by  the  British 
Government,  an  act  which  may  have  been  too  long  de- 
ferred, thus  illustrating  the  old  adage  "A  stitch  in 
time  saves  nine,"  has  been  the  lack  of  information  in 
Britain  about  the  actual  situation  in  India.    At  any 


330    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

public  meeting  in  England,  until  very  recent  days, 
when  a  criticism  of  British  policy  in  India  was  at- 
tempted the  flag  was  waved,  the  audience  stampeded, 
and  opposition  at  once  became  unpatriotic, — almost 
treason.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  public  meetings  are 
usually  governed  by  sentiment  rather  than  reason,  the 
issue  of  empire  was  always  obscured.  Upon  one  side 
of  the  discussion  are  ranged  a  solid  phalanx  of  bureau- 
crats in  the  civil  and  military  administration,  the  trad- 
ers whose  financial  interests  are  supposed  to  be  in- 
volved, those  economists  who  believe  imperial  annexa- 
tions to  be  the  only  safeguard  of  the  food  supply  of 
Great  Britain,  and  those  statesmen  who,  like  Oliver 
Twist,  are  always  demanding  "more";  on  the  other 
side  are  the  discontented  taxpayers  who  do  not  desire 
to  pay  for  "more,"  those  serious  and  liberal-minded 
officials  and  writers  who  risk  martyrdom  at  home  by 
supporting  the  rights  of  the  natives,  and  those  far- 
seeing  students  of  history  who,  with  due  regard  for 
the  future  safety  of  Britain  itself,  guide  the  imperial 
administration  into  agreement  with  the  modern  polit- 
ical movements  of  the  world. 

The  grant  of  self-government  to  the  South  African 
Confederation  within  a  few  years  after  the  Boer  War 
insured  the  loyalty  to  the  allied  cause,  in  the  recent 
African  campaigns,  of  the  Boers  themselves,  with 
whose  aid  the  conquest  of  the  German  colonies  in 
Africa  was  effected.  To-day,  in  all  British  colonies  in 
which  a  majority  of  whites  are  found,  autonomy 
amounting  to  virtual  independence  has  been  granted; 
they  are  no  longer  colonies,  but  dominions  in  a  British 
commonwealth.  They  enjoy  the  protection  of  the 
British  Army  and  Navy,  and  in  return  give  generously 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMEKICAN  POLICY        331 

of  their  very  best  to  imperial  service.  The  prime  min- 
isters of  the  dominions  are  at  intervals  summoned  to 
London,  and  in  a  sort  of  extraconstitutional  parliament 
take  their  share  in  guiding  the  destinies  of  the  whole 
empire.  General  Smuts,  who  twenty  years  ago  was 
leading  an  army  of  Boers  against  Great  Britain,  is  to- 
day recognized  and  hailed  in  England  as  one  of  the 
greatest  of  British  statesmen. 

In  the  Asiatic  colonies  occupied  by  colored  races 
the  situation  is  quite  different.  The  inferiority  of  the 
Asiatic  is  still  the  accepted  creed,  and  the  first  feeble 
steps  in  the  path  of  self-government  are  bitterly  re- 
sisted by  those  in  the  ruling  country  who  would  keep 
him  inferior.  It  is  upon  this  branch  of  the  subject  that 
the  American  policy  in  the  Philippines  has  had  direct 
bearing. 

England,  Holland,  and  France  hold  about  one  third 
of  the  territory  of  Asia  to-day.  Up  to  the  beginning 
of  this  century  they  held  together  upon  the  traditional 
policy  of  considering  the  Asiatic  merely  as  a  source  of 
wealth,  to  have  and  to  hold  for  purposes  of  exploita- 
tion, though  their  methods  of  development  have  had 
quite  different  results  in  practice.  Holland  has  made 
herself  rich  by  making  Java  and  Sumatra  rich;  En- 
gland has  enriched  herself  by  making  the  Indians  poor. 
For  a  graphic  picture  of  the  appalling  poverty  of  the 
Indian  peoples  the  student  may  consult  any  one  of  the 
growing  library  of  books  by  British  authors  on  the 
subject.  A  visit  to  India  is  the  most  depressing  a  mod- 
ern traveler  can  make ;  the  misery  of  the  people  strikes 
as  dramatic  a  note  as  a  painting  by  Gustave  Dore. 
Although  it  is  the  fashion  of  Indians  to  exaggerate  the 
greatness  of  their  past,  one  cannot  but  feel  to-day  that 


332    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

theirs  is  the  saddest  country  on  earth.  This  they  gen- 
erally attribute  to  British  rule;  English  imperialists, 
on  the  other  hand,  ascribe  it  to  the  defects  of  Indian 
character.  At  all  events,  the  population  of  India  is 
now  seething  with  discontent  and  revolt,  and  British 
rule  is  definitely  challenged.  The  situation  is  crit- 
ical in  the  extreme;  has  the  beginning  of  self-deter- 
mination been  too  long  delayed? 

Much  of  the  unpopularity  of  foreign  rule  is  due 
to  the  personal  and  official  arrogance  with  which  it  has 
been  administered.  The  truly  dangerous  position  of 
the  white  man  in  Asia  to-day  might  well  have  been 
avoided  in  time.  One  fact  may  be  stated  without  any 
hesitation:  the  White  Man's  Burden  in  Asia  up  to 
within  twenty  years  has  conveyed  to  the  peoples  of 
Asia  little  share  in  the  benefits  of  European  civiliza- 
tion. The  cardinal  principle  has  been,  with  the  British, 
Dutch,  and  French,  not  to  interfere  in  the  customs  and 
beliefs  of  the  native  populations.  This  fact  has  been 
stated  again  and  again  with  every  evidence  of  self- 
virtuous  unction.  It  is  evidently  regarded  as  a  con- 
cession of  supreme  altruism  to  the  natives.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  phrase  has  concealed  certain 
breaches  of  trust  on  the  part  of  the  governing  races. 
General  public  education  was  never  attempted  until 
very  recently,  sanitation  among  the  common  people 
was  neglected,  and  the  inhabitants  were  left  to  sink 
into  sloth  and  ignorance.  "While  it  would  have  been 
difficult,  and  perhaps  dangerous,  to  attempt  to  change 
the  social  systems  of  these  vast  populations,  and  while 
their  entirely  different  types  of  culture  were  without 
doubt  entitled  to  their  own  development,  it  is  in  this 
policy  that  the  clearest  evidence  is  shown  that  Euro- 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY         333 

pean  colonization  has  not  been  conducted  in  Asia  for 
the  benefit  of  the  people,  but  for  purposes  of  gain. 
Occasionally,  it  is  true,  reforms  of  degrading  customs, 
such  as  that  of  suttee,  or  widow-burning,  have  been 
forced  by  public  opinion  at  home.  The  good  people 
of  England  have  been  aroused  with  horror  that  such 
practices  should  exist  under  their  flag.  On  the  whole, 
however,  the  much-vaunted  principle  of  not  interfering 
with  native  customs  has  often  encouraged  the  exist- 
ence of  ignorance  and  vice.  Deprived  of  whatever  in- 
spiration might  come  from  self-government  and  the 
development  of  their  own  system  of  culture^  the  people 
sink  into  apathy  and  decay  under  a  rule  which  offers 
them  no  social  hope.  But  the  wrong  has  not  always 
been  negative  and  passive;  there  have  been  sins  of 
commission ;  for  example,  we  must  consider  the  opium 
traffic. 

In  1906  it  was  calculated  that  the  total  gain  from 
the  sale  of  Indian  opium  since  1773  had  amounted  to 
two  billion  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  Opium  is 
a  monopoly  of  the  Government  in  India  as  it  is  in  Sin- 
gapore, Hong-Kong,  Sandakan,  and  elsewhere.  "When 
this  fact  became  known  to  the  public  at  home,  a  wave 
of  moral  indignation  forced  the  calling  of  an  Interna- 
tional Opium  Congress,  and  several  half-hearted  at- 
tempts were  made  to  reduce  the  traffic.  In  reality,  the 
British  authorities  would  not  give  up  the  revenues  from 
opium;  in  several  colonies  no  real  improvement  was 
made.  The  present  situation  is  described  by  Miss 
Ellen  N.  LaMotte  in  her  book ' '  The  Opium  Monopoly. ' ' 
Despite  virtuous  sentiments  expressed  at  the  In- 
ternational Congress  in  1906,  by  1917  the  Straits  Set- 
tlements and  Federated  Malay  States  still  derived 


334    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

fifty  per  cent,  of  their  revenue  from  the  opium  monop- 
oly ;  Hong-Kong  one  third ;  while  British  India  still  ob- 
tained more  than  three  million  pounds  sterling  revenue 
annually  from  that  source ;  in  French  Cochin  China  an 
actual  increase  of  revenue  from  opium  appeared  in 
the  budget  for  1917;  in  British  North  Borneo  the 
opium  trade  had  become  a  positive  scandal  by 
1920;  two  successive  English  chief  justices  of  that 
colony  are  said  to  have  resigned  because  of  the  duplic- 
ity with  which  the  officials  there  were  forcing  the 
traffic. 

In  India,  the  smoking  of  opium  has  long  been  known 
as  one  of  the  national  vices,  and  is  believed  by  many 
to  be  an  effective  cause  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  race. 
Certainly  the  student  of  Indian  history  must  be  struck 
with  the  frequent  occasions  upon  which  some  Indian 
potentate  who  had  displayed  a  youth  of  great  vigor 
and  achievement,  faltered  and  sank  suddenly  to  his 
downfall  in  the  very  heyday  of  his  power.  He  was  not 
1  'all  there"  when  the  crisis  called;  opium  had  de- 
stroyed his  will  and  his  mind.  The  British  did  not 
introduce  opium  into  India;  its  use  was  one  of  the  " na- 
tive customs"  with  which  they  did  not  interfere.  On 
the  contrary,  they  took  up  the  traffic  as  part  of  the  gov- 
ernment program  and  pushed  it  with  the  utmost  vigor. 
This  led  to  a  collision  with  China,  and  thus  to  the 
acquisition  of  Hong-Kong.  A  British  writer,  Colonel 
A.  M.  Murray,  in  his  book  " Imperial  Outposts"  pub- 
lished in  1907,  describes  the  situation  in  picturesque 
language : 

The  title-deeds  of  this  great  British  stronghold  [Hong- 
Kong]  are  unfortunately  of  bad  origin.  The  acquisition  of 
Hong-Kong  will  always  be  associated  with  the  Opium  War  of 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        335 

1840 — a  dark  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  British  Empire.  No 
more  unjustifiable  war  has  ever  been  waged  by  a  civilized 
nation.  Cupidity  was  its  cause,  and  cupidity  of  a  demoraliz- 
ing nature.  The  war  can  only  be  described  as  a  successful 
piratical  attempt  to  force  an  illicit  traffic  in  a  contraband 
and  noxious  drug  on  an  unwilling  people. 

Lord  Palmerston  urged  the  Chinese  Government, 
after  he  had  won  the  war  on  that  issue,  to  legalize  the 
importation  of  opium  in  order  to  get  revenue  from  it. 
The  Emperor  Tao  Kwang  refused,  saying :  ' '  Nothing 
will  induce  me  to  derive  revenue  from  the  vice  and 
misery  of  my  people. ' '  This  coming  from  an  ' '  inferior 
Asiatic"  must  have  been  a  shock  to  the  custodians,  in 
England,  of  international  morality.  Opium  in  1840, 
opium  in  1920;  not  much  progress  visible  there!  An 
unfriendly  critic  might  well  denominate  that  portion 
of  the  British  Empire  which  lies  ''somewhere  east  of 
Suez"  as  "England's  opium  empire."  Not  only  have 
the  "customs  of  the  people"  not  been  "interfered 
with"  but  their  greatest  and  most  debilitating  vice  has 
been  encouraged,  even  forced  upon  them,  for  the  sake 
of  revenue.  The  White  Man's  Burden  has  been  materi- 
ally lightened  by  the  money  thus  derived,  and  by  the 
state  of  physical  and  moral  ruin  to  which  the  people 
have  been  reduced.  If  they  are  thoroughly  doped,  they 
are  more  willing  slaves. 

In  the  Philippines,  the  importation,  possession,  and 
smoking  of  opium  has  from  the  beginning  of  Amer- 
ican occupation  been  forbidden  by  law.  The  traveler 
notes  few  of  those  drug-sodden  specimens  so  common 
in  near-by  colonies.  The  Filipinos,  as  yet,  are  not  gen- 
erally addicted  to  the  drug,  and  smuggling  of  opium, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  confronting 


336    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  Philippine  Government,  is  chiefly  for  the  trade  with 
Chinese  residents  of  the  islands.  When  a  large  amount 
has  been  smuggled  in,  the  police  note  an  immediate 
decrease  in  the  price  in  the  contraband  market.  The 
drug  is  easy  to  transport  and  the  profits  are  so  enor- 
mous as  to  encourage  ingenious  plans  to  outwit  the 
customs,  worthy  of  the  attention  of  writers  of  mystery 
stories.  With  the  tremendous  gain  accruing  to  a  suc- 
cessful smuggler,  come  temptations  to  corrupt  public 
officials;  the  struggle  to  prevent  the  debauching  of 
public  office  and  the  spread  of  the  vice  itself  is  one  of 
the  liveliest  tasks  of  the  Philippine  Government.  It 
would  be  fairly  successful  in  that  endeavor  were  it  not 
for  the  British  North  Borneo  Government  Opium  Mo- 
nopoly in  Sandakan.  It  is  understood  that  in  1919 
about  six  million  pesos'  worth  of  opium,  Sandakan 
price,  was  sold  for  smuggling  into  the  Philippines. 

A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  that  the  nearest  of  the 
Sulu  group  of  islands  are  but  a  few  miles  from  San- 
dakan; in  fact,  two  of  the  small  Philippine  islands 
which  command  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  of  Sanda- 
kan are  held  by  the  government  of  that  island 
under  an  informal  permission  of  the  United  States. 
The  Philippine  Government  is  now  trying  to  regain 
control  of  the  "Turtle  Islands."  Scattered  over  hun- 
dreds of  square  miles  are  innumerable  coral  islets 
with  shallow  and  tortuous  passages  frequently  un- 
navigable  by  any  boat  of  more  than  three  feet  draft. 
Through  these  the  Moro  smugglers,  in  their  swift  vin- 
tas,  slip  with  their  precious  cargo  of  opium,  defying 
pursuit  and  capture.  Jolo,  Bohol,  Cebu,  and  Iloilo  are 
their  destinations,  and  in  these  places  the  Chinese 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        337 

finance  their  operations.  Occasional  battles  with  the 
constabulary  and  police  but  lend  a  zest  to  the  traffic 
so  far  as  the  Moros  are  concerned;  these  sanguinary 
little  fights  are  reminiscent  of  their  own  traditions  in 
the  past.  In  1920,  upon  a  visit  to  Jolo,  I  found  the 
government  hospital  there  crowded  with  patients  tak- 
ing the  cure  for  the  opium  habit. 

Repeated  protests  against  the  situation  in  Sandakan 
were  made  to  our  home  Government ;  I  asked  them  to 
invoke  the  good  offices  of  the  Government  of  Great 
Britain  to  the  end  that  the  Government  of  British 
North  Borneo  should  show  some  respect  for  our  laws 
and  some  consideration  for  our  institutions  and  peo- 
ple. The  protest  was  presented  in  London  by  our  Am- 
bassador, John  W.  Davis,  with  no  result.  The  answer 
was  what  is  known  as  "playing  for  time,"  and  was  full 
of  cynicism.  It  has  already  been  noted  that  one  half  of 
the  revenues  of  the  British  North  Borneo  Government 
comes  from  profit  on  the  official  sale  of  opium.  Fi- 
nally, I  asked  that  President  Wilson  call  another 
International  Opium  Congress  to  deal  with  this  mat- 
ter; it  was  pointed  out  that  this  was  one  of  the 
subjects  reserved  for  the  League  of  Nations.  The 
policy  of  "not  interfering  with  the  customs  of  the 
people ' '  certainly  cannot  be  extended  to  cover  the  facil- 
itating of  the  spread  of  this  odious  vice  among  a 
neighboring  people  who  are  now  comparatively  free 
from  it ! 

The  Dutch  in  their  India,  as  they  call  it,  are  perhaps 
the  most  conservative  of  the  European  nations  in 
their  colonial  policy.  Yet,  following  the  example  of  the 
Americans  in  the  islands  to  the  north,  they  have  now 
taken  the  first  steps  toward  granting  self-government 


338    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

to  their  fifty  million  Malay  subjects.  About  fifteen 
years  ago  they  started  a  system  of  universal  education, 
and,  as  a  Javanese  said  at  the  time,  education  is  the 
beginning  of  independence.  At  first  only  two  per  cent, 
of  their  budget  was  devoted  to  the  public  schools,  but 
the  school  system  is  growing  rapidly,  and  is  worked 
out  with  that  thoroughness  and  scientific  accuracy  for 
which  the  Dutch  are  famous.  Up  to  the  age  of  ten 
years  the  pupils  are  taught  in  the  Malay  tongue,  then 
in  Dutch,  thus  meeting  the  criticism  of  President 
Charles  W.  Eliot  of  Harvard  upon  our  Philippine 
method  of  forcing  the  children  to  study  in  English 
from  the  first  grade.  Two  years  ago,  the  Javanese 
were  for  the  first  time  admitted  to  a  share  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  policies  of  Dutch  India  by  the  calling  to- 
gether at  stated  intervals  of  an  advisory  body  of  na- 
tives known  as  "The  People's  House.' f  This  was  the 
crowning  work  in  the  administration  of  Governor- 
General  Count  Limburg  von  Steerum,  whom  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  twice  visiting  in  Java,  and  who  impressed 
me  as  the  most  able  of  the  various  statesmen  I  met  in 
Asia,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Marquis  Okuma, 
Premier  of  Japan. 

Of  course  it  is  in  scientific  agriculture  that  the  Dutch 
have  made  the  greatest  advance;  their  agricultural 
laboratories  should  be  the  model  for  all  the  other  coun- 
tries. To-day  Java  is  the  garden  spot  of  the  world,  and 
East  Sumatra  is  rapidly  developing  to  an  equal  plane. 
Out  of  this  have  come  many  of  the  great  fortunes  of 
Holland,  and  out  of  their  Indian  revenues  most  of  the 
railways  of  the  home  country  have  been  constructed. 
It  is  especially  to  be  noted  that  the  Dutch  have  also 
made  their  colony  the  richer  by  their  own  gain,  and 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY         339 

are  now  with  characteristic  foresight  admitting  the 
native  inhabitants  to  an  increasing  share  in  the  profits, 
and  encouraging  their  cultural  development  along  their 
national  and  historic  lines.  The  sultan  at  Medan,  in 
Sumatra,  for  example,  was  twenty  years  ago  a  pov- 
erty-stricken and  unimportant  individual.  The  recent 
marvelous  development  by  the  Dutch  in  East  Sumatra 
in  tobacco  and  rubber,  was  directed  by  the  Government 
so  as  to  let  the  sultan  have  his  share.  A  handsome 
mosque,  built  by  him  for  his  people,  a  fine  private  resi- 
dence, and  his  own  motor-car  are  evidences  of  the 
sultan's  rise  in  the  world.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  won- 
dered that  he  and  all  his  people  are  enthusiastic  sup- 
porters of  the  Dutch.  While  the  personal  attitude  of 
the  Dutch  colonial  families  toward  the  Javanese  is  still 
extremely  rigid,  indeed,  arrogant,  the  political  recog- 
nition of  the  natives  already  given  is  bound  to  lead  to 
a  modification  of  the  social  customs ;  that  this  will  not 
be  accomplished  without  infinite  difficulty  and  ill-feel- 
ing on  the  part  of  the  whites  may  be  assumed  as  cer- 
tain. 

In  Indo-China,  the  French  successes  have  been 
chiefly  military.  The  people  are  of  mixed  Malay  and 
Chinese  ancestry,  and  are  treated  with  disdain  and 
severity  by  their  masters.  Governor-General  Albert 
Sarrant,  now  Minister  for  the  Colonies  in  Paris,  intro- 
duced the  opening  wedge  three  years  ago  for  the  recog- 
nition of  the  natives  in  the  Government.  The  solidar- 
ity of  the  whites  in  this  great  colony  will  prevent  much 
progress  in  that  direction  except  as  a  result  of  serious 
disturbances.  The  French  at  home  are  not  deeply  in- 
terested in  their  Asiatic  possession ;  the  French  colon- 
ists there  all  suffer  from  homesickness  and  spend  their 


340    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILtPPINES 

days  in  longing  for  a  return  to  la  belle  France.  When 
asked  why  they  hold  the  colony,  they  reply:  "All  the 
great  powers  have  colonies,  so  we  must  have  our 
share." 

All  the  great  powers  have  colonies!  Are  colonial 
possessions,  then,  the  source  of  their  greatness,  or  a 
result?  From  the  beginnings  of  European  history, 
the  nations  have  sought  upon  the  seas  the  vacant  lands 
of  the  earth  for  their  surplus  or  enterprising  youth. 
To-day,  all  the  vacant  lands  suitable  for  white  resi- 
dents have  been  appropriated.  Vast  territories  in 
the  tropics  are  still  comparatively  unoccupied,  but 
medical  science  has  not  yet  solved  for  the  white  races 
all  the  problems  of  permanent  residence  in  tropical 
lands.  The  countries  in  Asia,  however,  were  not  vacant, 
but  for  the  most  part  already  densely  populated ;  they 
have  not  been  seized  for  purposes  of  colonization,  but 
for  gain ;  the  idea  is  to  make  the  people  work  for  their 
overlords  and  they  are  expected  to  keep  quiet  about  it 
and  are  required  to  pretend  to  like  it.  In  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  under  the  wave  of  liber- 
alism that  then  swept  over  Europe,  the  holding  of  far- 
distant  colonies  was  considered  a  doubtful  asset.  Lord 
Durham  in  his  celebrated  report  on  Canada,  from 
which  the  present  dominion  sprang,  adopted  the  dictum 
of  Charles  James  Fox  that  "the  only  method  of  re- 
taining distant  colonies  with  advantage  is  to  enable 
them  to  govern  themselves."  Gladstone  gave  back  the 
Ionian  Islands  to  Greece,  and  avoided  aggression 
in  Egypt  and  the  Transvaal.  Then  the  pendulum 
swung  the  other  way,  and  the  wild  scramble  over  the 
partition  of  Africa  took  place.  England,  France,  and 
Germany  led  the  pack,  and  upon  several  occasions  came 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        341 

perilously  near  to  war  with  one  another  over  the  di- 
vision of  the  spoils.  Even  Italy,  as  soon  as  she  had 
straightened  out  her  internal  troubles,  tried  her  hand 
in  Abyssinia,  with  disastrous  results ;  failing  that,  she 
undertook  the  doubtful  venture  in  Tripoli.  She  has 
recently  offered  Italian  citizenship  to  the  natives  of 
Tripoli, — a  straw  showing  in  which  direction  the 
wind  is  blowing.  Russia,  meanwhile,  had  pushed 
farther  and  farther  into  Asia  from  the  north ;  England, 
France,  and  Germany  from  the  south  and  east,  until 
to-day  their  work,  save  for  China,  is  nearly  complete. 
It  is  evident  that  they  all  firmly  believed  that  the  ac- 
quisition of  colonies,  not  merely  for  settlement,  but  in 
densely  populated  countries  for  purposes  of  exploita- 
tion, was  essential  to  the  greatness  of  a  modern  nation. 
Let  those  who  will,  balance  the  financial  advantages 
of  securing  a  monopoly  of  tropical  raw  materials  in 
any  given  colony,  the  profits  from  forcing  the  home 
products  upon  an  alien  people  to  keep  the  factory 
wheels  going  at  home,  with  the  staggering  expense  to 
the  home  taxpayer  in  maintaining  the  armaments  nec- 
essary to  hold  the  colonies  in  subjection  and  defend 
them  from  rivals  from  without.  Even  if  the  net  result 
shall  appear — which  is  more  than  doubtful — to  be  a 
financial  gain  to  the  average  citizen  of  the  colonizing 
power,  the  matter  must  finally  be  decided  upon  a  higher 
basis,  the  basis  of  international  morality.  The  world 
has  just  been  through  an  excessive  convulsion,  unsat- 
isfactorily brought  to  an  end  by  the  disappointing 
Treaty  of  Versailles.  The  old  system  has  not  worked 
well;  quite  the  contrary:  it  has  brought  the  existing 
European  civilization  to  the  very  verge  of  ruin.  Mid- 
dle-aged people  are  still  thinking  with  amazement  of 


342    MY  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 

the  apparent  security  of  life  in  this  world  in  which 
they  spent  their  yonth.  Despite  the  poison  of  news- 
paper propaganda,  despite  the  submergence  of  all  pop- 
ular institutions,  including  the  freedom  of  speech  and 
thought,  by  the  fervor  of  war,  intelligent  men  and 
women  in  every  country  are  now  asking  themselves 
how  it  all  happened,  and  to  what  end.  Various  propo- 
sitions for  international,  instead  of  national,  action  are 
offered  as  a  solution.  Socialists  in  all  countries  called 
the  late  struggle  a ' '  capitalists '  war. ' '  Whether  or  not 
the  modern  organization  of  high  finance  in  every  coun- 
try shall  be  found  in  subsequent  analysis  to  be  par- 
tially responsible,  one  fact  is  clear, — that  the  desire 
or  hope  of  making  money  out  of  alien  populations 
by  seizing  them  and  subjecting  them  to  exploitation, 
is  a  dangerous  game  at  which  all  can  play.  There  are 
many  who  believe  that  this  was  the  original  cause  of 
the  situation  which  resulted  in  the  explosion  in  1914. 
Thus,  in  recognition  of  the  danger  to  be  avoided  in  the 
future,  it  was  decided  at  Versailles  that  the  colonies 
which  changed  hands  by  the  treaty  should  be  held  as 
"mandates"  for  the  benefit  of  their  inhabitants,  and 
upon  a  basis  of  equal  opportunity  for  all  nations. 

However  proud  the  white  races  may  be  of  gazing 
upon  the  map  and  watching  the  spread  of  their  em- 
pires, however  acute  their  self-satisfaction  with  their 
deeds,  the  fact  remains  that  the  whole  of  continental 
Asia  south  and  east  of  the  plateau  of  Tibet  is  seething 
with  discontent  and  with  resentment  toward  the  Euro- 
pean conqueror.  About  seven  hundred  and  fifty  million 
people  who  inhabit  those  territories  are  kindling  into 
fury  against  the  white  race  on  account  of  the  European 
theory  of  colonization.    While  they  point  to  individ- 


EFFECT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  POLICY        343 

ual  instances  of  injustice  and  rapacity,  the  main  bur- 
den of  their  complaint  is  that  Europe  had  no  right  to 
annex  their  countries.  The  immense  significance  of 
this  prevailing  unrest  has  deeply  impressed  observers 
in  all  countries  in  Europe.  Once  started  to  thinking 
upon  the  ethical  question  involved,  independent  writers 
of  different  nations  have  begun,  themselves,  to  ques- 
tion their  moral  right  to  govern  these  aliens  against 
their  consent.  There  is  now  a  hope  that  with  the  new 
dispensation  of  world  affairs  these  questions  may  come 
to  be  discussed  openly  and  without  reserve.  There  is 
a  bare  chance  that  with  the  rise  in  the  recently  low  level 
of  international  morality,  the  colonial  questions  may 
eventually  be  settled  upon  principles  of  right  rather 
than  of  might.  When  the  day  arrives  for  this  moment- 
ous change  in  our  modern  system,  the  United  States  of 
America,  because  of  her  policy  in  the  Philippines,  can 
"come  into  court  with  clean  hands."  Let  us  make 
secure  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  our  sincerity  and  honor 
by  giving  to  the  Filipinos  that  independence  which  we 
have  so  definitely  promised. 


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